Mild Sleep Apnea?

[salvnyc]

Hello friends,

how are you doing? My hospital seem to have lost my sleep study record. Study was done in 2011. I remember seeing a document which said I have mild sleep apnea.

My prescriptions say 7 cm of h20 pressure. see image: https://pasteboard.co/J3IVjk0.png

So, If I show my prescription to a sleep specialist, will he say I have mild sleep apnea?

Thanks
Sach

[Pugsy]

No...the pressure prescribed has nothing to do with whether the sleep apnea diagnosis is mild, moderate or severe.
A person could have a diagnosis of severe OSA with an AHI of 50 and they might only need 6 or 7 cm pressure to hold the airway open and prevent the apneas.
Conversely someone might have a mild AHI diagnosis with 10 AHI and they might need 18 cm to hold the airway open.

[salvnyc]

thanks. I did some research online. It says below:

AHI or REI <5/hour = normal (for adults); 5–14.9/hour = mild OSA; 15–29.9/hour = moderate OSA; and ≥30/hour = severe OSA.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6140019/

so, REI is also taken in to consideration?

Thanks
Sach

[kteague]

Yes, those are the parameters use to categorize sleep apnea. It's just that there is no linear correlation between the severity of one's condition and the pressure needed for treatment, as Pugsy explained. Can you explain a little more what it is you're looking for? The script you posted has your diagnosis of OSA. Is there a reason why you are needing confirmation yours is mild? I feel like we're missing something.

[Goofproof]

Mild Sleep Apnea is a lot like being a little bit Pregnant, it's usually has the same outcome in the end.

With Sleep Apnea, there are two kinds, correctly treated or not correctly treated. It's up to you to choose which path you choose. Jim

[salvnyc]

My overseas insurance company is saying I hid my medical condition so they won't pay my 10K medical bill I accumulated recently. My argument is that I did send them an email after taking policy that I have mild sleep apnea and got a service ticket for it. but they did not do anything. no further emails from them. secondly, it was mild and I was not using machine for long time..like 3 years. so, I forgot to disclose when taking policy.

[Pugsy]

You could do a sort of test at home using your machine set to the lowest pressure possible...fixed cpap at 4 cm and see how many apnea events get flagged. It's not 100% definitive because there is still therapy value at 4 cm but it might give you an indication whether you need to proceed with a real sleep test without cpap to see if you still qualify for mild diagnosis.

In other words...if you use 4 cm fixed and you have a substantial increase in apnea events flagged you know you still have an OSA issue.
If you still have less than 1.0 flagged events at such a low pressure it doesn't mean no OSA but it means a maybe no OSA and you would need a sleep study for definite determination.

[salvnyc]

good idea. thanks. I am sending them reply soon but will do this test if they ask. I remember getting docs from cpap provider which said I have mild sleep apnea but they lost my docs too except Rx.

[TropicalDiver]

My overseas insurance company is saying I hid my medical condition so they won't pay my 10K medical bill I accumulated recently. My argument is that I did send them an email after taking policy that I have mild sleep apnea and got a service ticket for it. but they did not do anything. no further emails from them. secondly, it was mild and I was not using machine for long time..like 3 years. so, I forgot to disclose when taking policy.

I am confused about the problem you are actually trying to solve. It seems like this is mostly a contract case -- what did the terms of the insurance require and did you violate those terms? Just curious.

[salvnyc]

thanks for reply. that is what I am trying to figure out. things are not sometimes black and white and that's why we have courts. I have not been using machine for long time so i forgot to mention mild OSA when taking policy but I did send them email few months later to them with same ID during a different conversation. about 4 years later, i am hospitalized due to illness and bill is 10k. now they are rejecting my claim. I think there are some shades of grey. Policy is in india and the insurance provider do all kind of tricks. I think will have to go to consumer court. I think i have good chance of getting my claim as I sent that email.

Now I am using philips autosv bipap these days. Is all BIpap usage history stored on cards or it's in machine itself? I want to extract info on usage of bipap. How far back does it go on card and on machine hardware?

thanks for helping out.

Sach

[Pugsy]

Is all BIpap usage history stored on cards or it's in machine itself? I want to extract info on usage of bipap. How far back does it go on card and on machine hardware?

Depends on the brand and model as to how much data and how long it is stored and what type of data but in general the basic data is stored on the machine for 1 year.
It depends on what kind of card might be used as to how long on the card. Older smart card machines it was 1 year. Newer machines using a SD card it depends on card capacity.

[salvnyc]

My machine is philips respirionics autosv bipap

[Pugsy]

There are several models of that machine.
Does it use a smart card for data storage or a SD card?

Smart cards will have very limited data...the summary numbers for 1 year will be there but that's it. Smart card detailed data got written over every 7 days.

SD cards...System One machines and DreamStation machines...card storage is limited to the SD card capacity and nothing gets written over until the card is full.

[salvnyc]

BIPAP autosv advanced system one. I see it has a card but don't know it is smart card

[Pugsy]

System One machines use a SD card.

Smart cards look like a small credit card.

You should have at least a years worth of detailed data available on the SD card. Maybe even longer as long as it didn't get full.
To know for sure how much data is stored you simply have to use the available software and see how far back the data goes.
You probably won't have all the really old data available but should have at least the bulk of the past year and maybe more.