Sustained 82%
Question:
Hi all, this group is absolutely amazing and I hope I will be able to find some more help to this question. This question arose as a result of a discussion with writemd who has been particualar helpful. I recently had an oximetry test in which I was diagnosed with mild apnea. I have two questions 1. What constitues an apnea when reading an oximety graph, is it a drop of a few percent 98-92 which then climbs back up? Or is it more significant than that. I guess I am asking how you identify apneas on a oximetry graph? 2. I had three 20 minute periods during the night where my saturation dropped to 82% and stayed there. What do I make of this? 3. My heart rate basically all night was spiking between 110 and 50 what is the significance of this? Thanks you all so much!!! 
Engineer
Response:
I don’t enough to really say one thing or another. In my case, I have severe OSA with an index of 114.5. That means in 2 hours, I stopped breathing a 114 times. I also have hypopnea events as well. The way it was described to me is that with a hypopnea you don’t stop breathing completely but breath shallow short breaths. I don’t know how the sleep guy detects hypopnea but they can see them on their machine. Assuming that you don’t have some other problem that would impact your oximetry, you might investigate if you were having hypopnea events. Eric
Response:
"Softeng" <soft…@ihug.co.nz> wrote in message
news:ac72qt$ec7$1@lust.ihug.co.nz… – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Hi all, this group is absolutely amazing and I hope I will be able to find > some more help to this question. This question arose as a result of a > discussion with writemd who has been particualar helpful. > I recently had an oximetry test in which I was diagnosed with mild apnea. I > have two questions > 1. What constitues an apnea when reading an oximety graph, is it a drop of a > few percent 98-92 which then climbs back up? Or is it more significant than > that. I guess I am asking how you identify apneas on a oximetry graph? > 2. I had three 20 minute periods during the night where my saturation > dropped to 82% and stayed there. What do I make of this?
Dropping below 90% is not good suggest full sleep study > 3. My heart rate basically all night was spiking between 110 and 50 what is > the significance of this?
Not good either lack of o2 make the heart work harder > Thanks you all so much!!! > > Engineer
Think you could be joining us CPAP users
Response:
<< I recently had an oximetry test in which I was diagnosed with mild apnea. >> In general an oximetry test is considered to be a screening test, and can indicate the need for a full polysomnogram (overnight sleep study) for a complete diagnosis. Oxygen should stay above 95%. Dropping below that, especially for extended periods definitely indicates a problem. The polysomnogram will determine exactly what the problem is, how many apneas, how many hypopneas, how much Stage 3 and 4 sleep, how much REM sleep, sleep latency, leg movement and a bunch of other things that just the oximetry did not show. If the polysomnogram shows that obstructive apnea is indeed your problem, it also will allow them to titrate the CPAP and determine what level of pressure is needed to alleviate your problems. Absolutely you need to thoroughly discuss the test with your doctor and follow up on this! Mike posted and emailed
Response:
FYI…. http://www.aasmnet.org/PDF/hypopneaposition.pdf
Response:
By the way, I agree with other folks that an oximetry test alone is not the same as a sleep study. You need the sleep study to find out how everything correlates. I just wanted to point out that the sleep clinic should be looking for hypopnea events as well as the apnea events. Eric
Response:
"Softeng" <soft…@ihug.co.nz> wrote in message
news:ac72qt$ec7$1@lust.ihug.co.nz… . I > have two questions > 1. What constitues an apnea when reading an oximety graph, is it a drop of a > few percent 98-92 which then climbs back up? Or is it more significant than > that. I guess I am asking how you identify apneas on a oximetry graph?
Generally a drop of 5% or more that lasts for at least 10 seconds. If there is a pattern of these and then a quick return to normal levels, it most likely is apnea. Obviously, the lower the oxygen level falls, the worse the situation is. Levels below 90 are generally considered abnormal. But even if it always stays above 90, there can be a lot of short apneas happening that cause mini-awakenings and take away restful sleep. > 2. I had three 20 minute periods during the night where my saturation > dropped to 82% and stayed there. What do I make of this?
If the oxygen level is consistently staying low for periods of 20 minutes, I would think something other than apnea could be going on, but as others have mentioned, you’d need a full-fledged sleep study to find out what kind of breathing efforts you were making during those 20 minute periods. Typically, during an apnea, oxygen levels rebound to normal within a few minutes at max. The longest apnea I’ve heard of is 5 minutes, but the oxygen level usually rises quickly after this time and the pattern starts over again. 3. My heart rate basically all night was spiking between 110 and 50 what is > the significance of this?
It’s related to the lower oxygen levels. As your oxygen level in your blood falls, your heart has to beat faster to get the remaining oxygen to your tissues. So 50 is probably the rate when you’re breathing normally during sleep, and 110 would be the rate in the midst of an apnea just before the apnea ends.
