Destaurations at Night...how many is too many??

[myboys]

HI,
I have been having some problems with being out of breath, and I was recently diagnosed with Sleep apnea. I was sent to a pulmonologist who has done a whole bunch of tests. I had a Oximetry overnight test done and it showed

I had 306 desaturations that were longer than 20 secs but less than 3 mins.

I had 28 desaturations that were longer than 3 mins.

My lowest O2 level was 72, and the highest was 97.

approx   26% of my sleep was in the 80's, 18% was above 95 and 19.0 % was 93-94%,  19% was in 92-93 23% was in 90-91and finally 1 % was in the 70's.

Is this normal in  mild sleep apnea??

It was clearly better on my CPAP night, but my desats were still in the 70's with the machine too. I see my Doc in a week or so, but I want to be able to ask the right questions. Should I be concerned. I did do a Full pulmonary Fuction test in the one with the plethysmography test.

thank-you!!

"

[National Jewish Health]

Both the duration and severity of your of oxygen desaturation suggests a sleep disorder of at least moderate severity.  Saturations in the 70% range, while on a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device, raise the question of the validity of the oximetric results and/or misapplication of the CPAP.  You need to ask your doctor to interpret these findings.  Also, sleep apnea does not cause shortness of breath while awake.  On awakening from sleep in the night, in response to airway obstruction, it does give the sensation of shortness of breath.

Your doctor should be able to describe the most likely causes of your shortness of breath.  The cause is unlikely to be a lung problem, if the spirometry is normal, but a normal spirometry does not rule out the problem of exercise induced asthma.

[myboys]

I have my FPT results and everything looks ok, except my RV is 70 and my FPV1/FVC% is 85.  My DLCO is 92%.

Some of my findings were ovewr 100% is that normal?

[myboys]

Thank-you again, I guess I was more worried it was lung related, I will find out this week, but, I like to be prepared to ask the right questions. Thank-you again for your time. It is greatly appreciated.

[myboys]

just wondering why some of these don't get answered and others do.