was just reading a few posts.....those I read have similar numbers for both REM & overall AHI...sometimes NON-REM AHI was included and all 3 numbers are very similar.

Anybody have AHI's that are significantly different?

If so, has the dr given any indication of which score, if either, is more important in your diagnosis?  For example if one qualifies as mild and the other is below or above mild, which does the dr favor?

thanks

The total AHI is all that matters, not when they occur, in determining the severity of one's OSA. Yes, MOST people tend to encounter MORE "events" during REM sleep and when supine. But that is NOT a hard and fast rule. It is a individualistic situation.


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so....my son has mild apnea during REM but his overall AHI is not significant...so he doesn't really have apnea?

That's not my place to diagnose or interpret. I'm not a medical professional, just a patient. I'm only relating my understanding of the diagnosis and degree of OSA and my personal opinion, based on that understanding, of what occurs when.


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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.

CrohnieToo wrote:

The total AHI is all that matters, not when they occur, in determining the severity of one's OSA.

This is a tough one. I think about it this way: If REM AHI was not all that important, it wouldnt be used in the interpretation. In fact, I have had many patients sent back for sleep studies because their REM AHI was say 20 and their NREM was within reasonable levels. The reasoning?

Well, in many of those scenarios, the patient spent very little time in REM. Heck, if you had 3 events in 15 minutes of REM, your REM AHI would be 12. THe theory is that if they can get their REM percentage up, then their total number of events will rise pulling the entire nights AHI up, maybe to the point where CPAP can be justified (to the insurance company).

I have a million studies in front of me here, so I will list some data (anonymously of course):

2 at random

total AHI - 13.89
REM - 69.47
NREM - 5.34

------

total AHI - 1.62
REM - 10.91
NREM - 0.00

hmm; ok, thanks.

I think there is much more to this topic, there are some less common forms of apnea in which people have a much lower AHI in Rem sleep than non-REM sleep. This is unusual and sign of a different more compliacted issue. Then there are people whose apnea is highly positional, in some positions they have no apneas. Such people may use special pillows etc. if they cannot use their CPAP for any reason.
There are reasons why we pay sleep specialists, overall AHI is important but so is knowing how wedo in different stages etc.


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I had 38 in rem and 78 in nonrem so that seems a big difference.  But I am learning too.

crossfit wrote:

I had 38 in rem and 78 in nonrem so that seems a big difference.  But I am learning too.

I was reading some results last night and they mentioned that 50% of OSA patients have a higher NREM than REM Ahi. Dont quote me on this because I may not be remembering this with 100% accuracy.

I did save the conclusion, for some reason. Here it is:

CONCLUSION: REM OSA represents a significant proportion in patients with mild to moderate OSA and there are fewer patients with positional influence than the other OSA. Positional therapy might not be effective in patients with REM OSA, especially of moderate AHI severity.

crossfit wrote:

I had 38 in rem and 78 in nonrem so that seems a big difference.  But I am learning too.

your talking actual episodes, right?  what were your AHI's for REM & nonREM?

yes, looking back that is the total.  The rem index for apneas alone is 50.1 and non rem for apneas alone is 13.6.  they don't have a combined number for apneas and hypopneas but hypopnea index for rem was 0 and non rem was .3.