Posted by AmyinCA on February 01, 2002 at 12:00:58:

In Reply to: 5 obstructive apneas & 64 ostructive hypopneas posted by Angela on February 01, 2002 at 04:32:54:

Hi Angela,

Welcome to the forum! Your case seems somewhat similar to mine - I have UARS with an RDI of 13 (see http://www.sleepnet.com/apnea79/messages/371.html for my history). You'll get the hang of this soon, don't worry, just keep coming to the forum with your questions - everyone is great and very helpful here.

> There were 5 obstructive apneas & 64 obstructive hypopneas.

You stopped breathing completely for more than 10 seconds 5 times, and your breathing was blocked by 50% or more for more than 10 seconds 64 times.

> The apnea index was 1/hour & resiratory disturbance index was 11/hour.

You slept around 6 hours, so on average you had 1 apnea per hour and total disturbances of (64+5)/6 = 11 times per hour.

> Also, what do they mean when they say the longest respiratory event was 48 seconds?

The longest amount of time you went without breathing (one of your apneas) was 48 seconds long. Hold your breath for that long and feel how badly you want to breathe by the end of 48 seconds - this is what your body goes through as you sleep!

> Waking oxygen was 98% & lowest recorded was 91%.

Don't worry about oxygen desaturation because you are over 90%.

> Snoring was moderate to severe.

This is common, but not a requirement of apnea. It's a good indicator of UARS, though.

> What do they mean by sleep architecure was severely fragmented by arousals-49/hour most spontaneous arousals?

This means your sleep was very disturbed, you weren't able to enjoy deep, restful sleep because your body had to keep waking up enough to get you to breathe. While you had 11 on average, in one hour you had 49 arousals!

> They say that sleep apnea was severe in REM sleep

This is typical - in REM sleep you lose your muscle tone and your body is paralyzed so you won't act out your dreams and punch your sleep partner in a dream-fight, but your airway is also relaxed so this is the time when you are most likely to have apneas. You were REM sleeping when you had an RDI of 49 for the hour - that is severe apnea.

> and that there was also an increased number of spontaneous arousals suggesting upper airway resistance syndrome--what is that?

Sleep apnea is only one of about 70 or so sleep disorders. The public is most familiar with sleep apnea (stop breathing), the next stage up is sleep hypopnea (=>50% restricted breathing), and the stage above that is upper airway resistance syndrome (<50% restricted breathing, called RERAs, or respiratory event related arousals). These can all be combined and include other disorders such as restless leg syndrome, narcolepsy, etc. which makes resolving sleep disorders a challenge.

UARS is not as easily detected by a sleep study, unless you have a PES (I never remember what this stands for other than esophegal) tube down your nose into your throat to measure the pressure your lungs exert to "suck in" air. Your upper airway has partially collapsed, but less than 50 percent, and your lungs have more resistance. You are also snoring loudly.

Another indicator of UARS is a pattern of snoring, each snore louder and more struggled, possibly a snort or a gasp, then an EEG arousal and no snoring. Then the cycle starts all over again.

They call it "spontaneous" because they can't see anything on the charts to indicate why you woke up. Not all docs look at UARS, the fact that they are considering it for you means they are doing their homework.

Sleep apnea, sleep hypopnea, and UARS are all treatable by CPAP. You'llEmbrace the CPAP as a support to give you restful sleep, and soon you will feel much better.

Good luck! Check back here and let us know how you are doing, and if you have any more questions.

Amy

Follow Ups:

• Re: 5 obstructive apneas & 64 ostructive hypopneas angela 12:12 2/01/02 (1)
  • Re: 5 obstructive apneas & 64 ostructive hypopneas Carla 19:27 2/01/02 (0)

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