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hello to anyone whos reading this! im female 20 yrs of age :)

i want to ask a couple of questions and need informations.

cause im new to this. ive been reading about it from some websites but im still worried and still feel lost.

anyone here suffer from central apnea? what treatment have u tried and did it work?

what should get checked to rule out the causes? and can it be cured?

hope people who suffer from it would like to share.

any help would be greatly appriciated thanks :)

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Central apnea is usually diganosed from a sleep test in the sleep lab.  The newer machines may also report "CAs", but these are clear airway apneas and without all the gear used in the sleep test cannot be with certainty called "centrals". A real central apnea is when the airway is open, but there is no respiratory effort- the brain does not tell the body to breathe.  The cause of the centrals may not be known.  They are usually treated with some variation of CPAP- Bilevel, or ASV.  We all have some central apneas so it depends on how many you have whether to be concerned or not.  Usually central apnea is not curable just as OSA is not curable, but treatable.  Many people worry unnecessarily about a few centrals, unless you are having many I would not be concerned, but would discuss matters with my sleep doc during the next appointment.

I was diagnosed with both OSA and CSA about 3 months ago as a result of sleep test.  Dr. tells me that many, if not most, patients with CSA actually develop it as a result of OSA treatment.  Unfortunately, mine was present and with over 230 occurrences in a four hour period during the very first test. 

From what I have been told, there appears to be no "cure", only treatment.  I have not heard of any identification of causes, and it just seems to be a mystery to medical science. 

I have been going through bipap therapy (which treats both OSA and CSA) and it has been a real struggle.  The primary difficulty has been finding a mask that doesn't leak when the device detects CSA occurrences and increases the pressure to "force" you to breathe.  Finally found the Quattro FX and an anti-leak strap from pad-a-cheek does the trick for me. 

I never thought I would be saying this, as I was ready to give up on treatment only a few weeks ago, but hang in there.  Perserverance, as well as my wife's constant nagging me about it, are the only things that have gotten me to accept and live with the treatment process.

It WILL get better,trust me.

 

Bill

 

I was very much the same as Bill, I was diagnosed 6 months ago, my AHI's were 30 at the sleep test (stopped breathing 30 times an hour for more that 10 seconds). On CPAP my AHI is down to an average over the last two months of 3.1 of those that are left 80% are Centrals and 20% Obstructive. I do feel much fresher during the day and CPAP has saved my life. The trials at the start are a bit much but once you get over them and you can get good advice from these sites the rest is easy. Good Luck

thanks guys for answering :)
about the cause of central apnea. is it neuroligical? thats what i read. have you guys get it checked? About the no cure condition which sounds scary to me. What about Diaphragmatic Pacing/Phrenic Nerve Pacing? Although surgery souunds scary to me too.

I had not heard about these until your post.  It sounds like it goes WAY beyond anything I want to get involved in.  From what I have been told, CSA is a serious condition, but with bipap therapy, it is controllable without the risk of surgical implantation of devices in your neck or chest.  Pacing sounds like it is a truly last stage measure just to keep someone alive.  CSA is definitely life-threatening but controllable with less heroic efforts.

Central apnea is neurological in origin as I said above.  I have never heard of Diaphragmatic Pacing/Phrenic Nerve Pacing used for Central Sleep Apnea- that would be something to discuss with your sleep doctor.  I read in your profile that you think you have sleep apnea and are receiving no treatment.  You will not know if you are having central sleep apnea until you have a sleep test in a sleep lab.  For goodness sake don't worry about something that has not even been diagnosed.  When are you having a sleep study?

Central apnea at 20!? Heart problems? Are you on pain meds? Opiates? Lung disease? If you are not experiences any of the things that I have mentioned then I doubt that it's central apnea.

not on pain meds or opiates. last time i got lung xray when i tried hyperbaric therapy 2 years ago they said its fine but my lung cant expand as big as other people and during the therapy i feel really breathless.

i do have heart problems since i was young (tachycardia palpitations) did ecg, echo, holter. i got betablocker but they said my heart was fine. didnt find the cause.

also when i was young i experienced episodes where at night i got woke up because im out of breath and when i got back to sleep i got woke up again and i noticed i wasnt automatically breathing. it was weird and i didnt know what it was. and i also develop gerd.

sometimes i also feel difficulty breathing (one of the cause was due to gerd i guess) and when i am about to sleep it gets worse because my throat got blocked. when i  read about apnea and think about my symptoms i think its all got connections. thats why i was thinking of get this checked and take it more seriously.

once ive been to a sleep lab years ago  for my insomnia but that night i couldnt sleep. so it couldnt detect anything.

"

"once ive been to a sleep lab years ago  for my insomnia but that night i couldnt sleep. so it couldnt detect anything"

 

shiawase, I  am very confused by your posts.  In your profile you say you "think you have sleep apnea" and are not on treatment.  I posted this above, yet you did not respond.  In your own words your sleep study didn't detect anything because you didn't sleep.

For your credibility, please tell me and the forum why you are concerned with central apnea when you have not been diagnosed with any apnea and are not receiving treatment.

 

I agree with Mary. If you think there is something wrong with your sleep most likely there is. The best place for you would be a sleep lab.

yes i answered it in my last post. because since i was young i experienced episodes where at night i got woke up because im out of breath and when i got back to sleep i got woke up again and i noticed i wasnt automatically breathing and it continued. it even made me feel scared to sleep. it was weird and i didnt know what it was. i used to think it was temporary and calm myself. and since i was young untill now i got many episodes that i noticed. although sometimes i noticed it happened a couple of times at night, sometimes i didnt noticed i get any. sometimes it was really bad i felt like i almost die and sometimes its not really bad. 
 and last week it happened again. and as i was reading about apnea can cause heart problems and makes it worse (which ive been searching for the cause of my heart problems for a long time) i am more concerned. and that it could be dangerous.
 and i explained about the sleep test and not have been diagnosed. its because i havent got a sleep test when i was actually asleep. ive been once but i couldnt sleep at all that night so it couldnt detect anything. and honestly its hard for me to sleep at the sleep lab. because not only i have difficulty falling asleep but i have sensitive skin which that night during the test i got really itchy. and the wires, etc made me feel uncomfortable so its harder for me to get to sleep.
but i know i still should go to sleep lab and i am planning to go and i have been choosing the clinic and the doctor.

I was surprised to read "Central apnea at 20!? Heart problems? Are you on pain meds? Opiates? Lung disease? If you are not experiences any of the things that I have mentioned then I doubt that it's central apnea."

Is this the opinion of a doctor? I hope not because although it is somewhat rare, it is not so rare that it doesn't have a name. Primary Central Apnea is the term for central apnea not caused by the above listed problems.

But we shouldn't be too hard on nonbelievers. I have had this condition since my mid twenties, that I am aware of and my father was being shaken awake in his early 40's by his frightened wife because he would just stop breathing. Neither of us was on drugs or had a stroke or lung disease. When I had my first sleep study in 06, I was diagnosed with mild obstructive sleep apnea even though out of 26 apneas only one was obstructive and 25 were central. I was never able to get an explanation as Dr Paul Haberman who oversaw the test refused to speak to me and told me that the clinician who referred me would explain it. The doctor who referred me was a psychiatrist treating me for depression and could not interpret my report.  

After my second sleep lab in 09 I got a BIPAP which did little to resolve my condition and these folk failed to even produce a report so I don't know what it said. I am now seeing someone else as my constant state of exhaustion is unbearable but without insurance further sleep studies and a possible ASV machine are remote possibilities.

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