We just got back from seeing my sons pulmo to go over the results from his sleep study.  The main thing that I came away with was a date for a second sleep study and a script for a c-pap mask.  I'm hoping that someone here can help me figure out what the information on the report means.  Please let me know if this isn't appropriate.  I'm new here.  Thanks!!

Oh...he's already had his tonsils and adenoids removed.

Abnormal Respiratory Events:

total abnormal respiratory events...287
apnea/hypopnea index...10.7/hr
respiratory disturbance index...35.3/hr
mean duration of apnea/hypopnea...8.4 seconds
longest obstructive event...31.6 seconds
overall mean oxygen saturation...93.5
lowest oxygen saturation during obstructive events...85.0

Types of abnormal respiratory events:

Obstructive apneas...6
obstructive hypopneas...26
central apneas...55
respiratory effort arousals...200

Sleep time in stages:

(n1) 2.3%  (n2) 36.8%  (n3) 42.5%  (r) 17.9%

sleep efficiency 98.8  rem latency 73.5

What does this mean??  Good, bad or other??  

Thanks!!

There are a couple of questions that need answered before anyone will be able to help you with this. Also remember that everyone on here is a parent, not a physician and will be hesitant to give any kind of a "diagnosis" based on a test or anything else. Third, please be mindful of what your docs advise. They genuinely have the kids' best interest at heart, and are doing all they know to do that puts them at little risk.

Questions for you:
1. How old is your son?
2. How many sleep studies has he had? Results for each?
3. Have they done a sleep study with the cpap to know it will work and at what pressure?
4. How are they addressing the central apneas? A cpap doesn't usually work to alleviate those...

My son's last sleep study showed 4 obstructives and more than 20 centrals (in about 5 hours of sleep). They are unconcerned about the obstructives (he only gets them when he sleeps on his back, which he rarely does at home, but does all night at the sleep study). Our docs are far more concerned about the central apneas because by all appearances, he had outgrown the central apnea as an infant at 10 months old. When I brought him back with more apneas, we all expected to find obstructive, which is very typical for a toddler to relapse into after growing out of central apnea. However, when it came back with moderate central apnea, the doctors all wanted to get to the bottom of it. He has had 2 MRIs, both revealing low lying cerebellars, but not a chiari malformation. We aren't sure this is playing a role, but are trying to rule it out with some noninvasive tests, like the BAERS test.

I do hope this helps you some. I don't know exactly what you are asking, so maybe you can give us a little bit more information and some more specific questions we can try to answer for you. In a nutshell, I am surprised they seem so concerned over the obstructive and aren't really addressing the central..

Tiffany, mom to Isaac who officially turned 2 this week, knows ALL his letters and sounds, can count to 14, can reliably read 3 words, but still can't remember to breathe when he sleeps!

Thanks for your help.  When I first found this forum I was more than a little overwhelmed because I didn't think the study would come back showing anything.  I've hesitated to do a sleep study w/him before because he hasn't had the obvious snoring/apnea issues since his tonsils and adenoids were removed at 22 months.  Since then, the report has been making more sense.  I just didn't understand the numbers or terms and didn't know how to interpret them.  It's also been hard to find good research on central apnea.

My son is 4.  He's considered medically complex already and has multiple diagnosis (Ehlers Danlos syndrome, Sotos syndrome, Eosinophilic Esohpagitis, GERD, motility issues, aspiration, multiple allergies, etc).   This was his first sleep study.  He is now scheduled to have another one with the cpap sometime in May.  I guess the cpap is more for the obstructive apneas and other events then??  Fortunately, he's already being followed by a neuro who's worked with his pulmonologist in the past.  They should be a good team for treating the central apnea.  

Does central apnea ever go away?  Is it possible that he'll need something like a cpap long term?  I feel so bad for not pushing harder for a sleep study earlier...it just didn't seem like it was necessary especially since he's already had a dozen procedures and multiple tests.  He's more afraid of doctors now and I didn't want him to have to go through yet something else that might not be needed.  It took me 10 minutes to get him out of the car once we got to the hospital for the study.  He was so scared that he kept locking the car door and I nearly got my fingers smashed trying to get it opened.  Little stinker.    

I'm not looking for a diagnosis here.  That's what our pulmo is for.  I just didn't understand what all of these numbers meant.  Is 55 centrals scary?  287 respiratory events...is that fairly common?  How does he compare to other kiddos?  Why didn't I catch this sooner?  I'm thinking that a bipap may be a better choice for him than a cpap...any thoughts on that?  I know next to nothing about all of this but from what I've read he wouldn't do well with an asv because he doesn't have a good breathing pattern to copy.  ??  

Thanks for any and all input on this.  When I get a chance I'll go back through some of the old posts and try to find answers there as well.  If you have any advice or know of any questions that I should be asking the doctor please let me know.  Thanks!!!