5 years ago I was sent for a sleep study. The doctor didn't have a great bedside manner and basically acted as tho I was imposing upon his time. he said I wasn't getting enough oxygen and I was given an oxygen machine (not cpap) that i had to use at night (the kind with the tubing that goes in your nose)....after 10 months I quit using it because I got married and didn't think that was how i wanted to start out. (stupid, i know)

Anyway, fast forward to today.  I realized that I needed to investigate the results of that sleep study so i obtained a copy.  Results as follows:

Sleep efficiency 82.6
Sleep onset Latency 155.0 minutes
Total apnea - 1
Hypoapnea 78
AHI 10.3

Lowest saturation 82%
Average Wake % 91

Diagnosis: Hypoxia
Impressions: This finding typically signifies an underlying cardiac problem, pulmonary disease, or a hypoventilation syndrome.
Recommendation: evaluate for etiologies of hypoxia, evaluate for cardiac disease, evaluate for pulmonary problems, consider an arterial blood gas.

Of course NONE of this information was provided to me.  I have made an appt with another doctor to go over this.  My regular dr said she never rec'd a copy of this report either and was quite surprised when i faxed it to her last week.  She made the recommendation to the new doctor for me.

Does anyone have any comments on this?  Wondering why i was on the regular oxygen versus a cpap (never did feel like i was any more rested during that period i was on that so i'm wondering how effective it was versus a cpap)...

Any help appreciated.

Pook-
Welcome to the forum.
I am not a medical professional but I will try to answer your questions to the best of my ability. Hypoxia means a low level of oxygen in the blood. Your doctor looked at your AHI and could have noted mild sleep apnea (any AHI over 5 is generally considered to be normal) but it looks like the doctor's attention was drawn to your low waking oxygen level (91% when it should be around 98%). Hypoxia is normally considered to be a symptom of other underlying problems (which are listed therein). My guess is that your doctor prescribed oxygen because he felt you needed that and that CPAP was not prescribed because the doctor felt that the sleep apnea was the lesser problem (and the doctor may have hoped that oxygen might help with the apnea also).

There are some things that are of concern. First, it looks like there may not have been any effort to follow up on the recommendations to further evaluate the reasons for your low blood oxygen level. I would hope that your current doctor could help you with this.

Second, the data here is just a summary of your sleep study report. You may well want to go back and request a copy of the full report. This will have a lot of other information about your sleep including sleep architecture, arousals, and types of apneas and hypopneas you had that would give a more full impression of what is going on with your sleep.

With respect to your sleep apnea, you will need a new sleep study and your doctor is right to pursue this. As I mentionned before, I would also be asking your doctor about looking into whether hypoxia is still a problem for you and what migt be contributing to it. My own impression based on my (non-medical) understanding is that you if you still have these same results you would be better off to be started on CPAP with oxygen rather than oxygen alone, but any treatment decisions need to be made after updated testing and evaluation.

I hope this helps. Keep us posted.

Best wishes,
Bill

Thanks for providing some insight.  I know that the new pulmonologist will help me to understand the information and perhaps even send me for another sleep study so that we can get things straightened out. I think i was just a big wigged out by the comments on the report, especially when my mother was recently diagnosed with a terminal pulmonary disease. I felt the last doctor should have investigated the things the report advised him to or at least clued me in so I could have had someone investigate them.  Another reminder that we are all in charge of our own health care and we can't just leave it up to someone else.