I just got my results after my first study: mild sleep apnea. I have to make an appointment for the second study with the CPAP. However, I'm not really sure what's 'normal' in mild SA, or what everything means, or what numbers I should be paying attention to. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

ME:
F, 29yo, 145 lbs., 5'5"
Exhausted for YEARS. Hard time waking. Sometimes felt like I had a lead apron on me upon waking. Can sleep 6, 8, 10, 12 hours and not feel refreshed. Get so tired after work, take a nap and sleep through until morning.

CONDENSED:
60 events/10.3 an hour
12.5-min sleep latency
89% efficiency
lowest O2 is 89%
Awakenings: 47
No snoring, normal sinus, normal sleep stage progressions, occasional arousal
Events in supine and non-supine, but mostly supine.

STAGES
1/38.5 min/10.1% SPT/4.2% SPT NORM
2/159.5 min/41.9% SPT/52.4% SPT NORM
Delta/85.5 min/22.4% SPT/17.7 % SPT NORM
REM/67.5 min/17.7% SPT/25.2%SPT NORM

DISTURBANCES (60 TOTAL; 53 Supine)
(20 Obstructive, 1 central, 1 mixed, 38 Hypopneas)
REM: 10 Obstructive, 1 central, 1 mixed, 24 hypopneas
NREM: 8 obstructive, 12 hypopneas
Wake events: 2 obstructive, 2 hypopnea

AROUSALS (131 total)
16 Apnea
32 Hypopnea
0 Desaturation
83 Spontaneous
0 Limb movement
0 Periodic LImb Movement

OXYGEN
(Mean: 95.6%; Min: 89%)
Desaturations 4% or more: 28

HEARTRATE
Mean: 77
Min: 61
Max: 108

1. What does SPT and SPT NORM mean?
2. What does ESS 12 mean?
3. What does PTT Drop Summary mean?
4. What does Desaturations mean?
5. Does any of this sound like there's something in addition to SA? Doc was mentioning narcolepsy, but I surely don't feel like that's my problem.

Thank you so much! I was too tired (of course) to ask a lot of questions when I got my report this morning!

Whew! Some tough questions. I'm only an OSA patient started on CPAP therapy in Oct 06.

PTT = pulse transit time. (Yeah, I know, clear as mud). Blood pressure elevation, associated with respiratory arousal from sleep, results in a drop in the PTT.

SPT = sleep period time (the time you actually slept) Obviously different than the total time in bed.

Interesting that your sleep efficiency was 89% given the number of spontaneous arousals, etc. You slept just shy of 6 hours. With 60 disturbances that works out to about 10 disturbances an hour or one every 6 minutes if my math is okay.

131 arousals in 6 hours is A LOT! That is almost 22 arousals an hour. So, what? one arousal every 3 minutes all night long? No wonder you are TIRED, EXHAUSTED!

ESS = the Epworth Sleepiness Scale a self-reporting questionaire to estimate your tiredness and used to help determine whether a sleep study is warranted.

Desaturation = a drop in the oxygen level in your blood for a specified length of time which I've forgotten.

Mild OSA has been determined to be an AHI (apnea/hypopnear index - the number of apneas and hypopneas combined per hour of sleep) 5 to 15, an AHI of 15 to 30 is considered moderate OSA and an AHI over 30 is considered severe OSA.

You had 47 actual awakenings (vs arousals) which works out to just about 8 an hour. I sure don't understand their saying "occasional arousals" given that you had 83 sponatneous arousals in 6 hours on top of the apneas and hypopneas and their then reporting 131 total arousals during 6 hours of sleep!

Since your doctor suspects narcolepsy has he suggested yet another sleep evaluation and MSLT (multiple sleep latency test)?? I would REALLY question those spontaneous arousals. What are likely causes?

There is a sticky at the top of the forum index page or at the left side that lists the various sleep terms and abbreviations.

RAM-Sleep! Where are you when you need you to BETTER ANSWER these questions???       I'm way outta my league here.


_________________
Some people are like Slinkies... Not really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.
Resmed VPAP Auto. Humidaire 3i, Simplicity & Micro masks, ResScan 3.4, S8 ResLink, Embla oximeter.

Thank you so much! I was out of it this morning, plus I thought I'd save more questions for the doc until after the CPAP titration.

It helps having someone who has been through this look at the numbers for me and explain stuff in layman's terms.

I thought the number of arousals, especially spontaneous, was really high as well. If I've read correctly, the spontaneous ones are not caused by stopped breathing? And what is the difference between arousals and awakenings?

Again, thank you so much!

Giggle. NOW we ARE getting into the blind leading the blind! As "I" understand it the arousals are "just" disturbances that kick you out of a deeper sleep stage back into a lighter sleep stage whereas with an awakening you are kicked out of any sleep stage and totally awake tho maybe or maybe not long enough to remember it. But this isn't gospel, just "my" interpretation/understanding.

By the way, I am female, 5'4" and 108 lbs w/a 13" neck circumference so the only thing close to my fitting the "common" OSA profile is that I am 66 years young.


_________________
Some people are like Slinkies... Not really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.
Resmed VPAP Auto. Humidaire 3i, Simplicity & Micro masks, ResScan 3.4, S8 ResLink, Embla oximeter.