Multinight Recording and Analysis of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Airflow in the Home for Titration and Management of Sleep Disordered Breathing

Objectives: The authors examined magnitude/variability of residual sleep disordered breathing (SDB) at pressures around the therapeutic continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), and described a multinight approach to CPAP titration/retitration consisting of recording airflow and summarizing SDB over multiple nights at multiple pressures and choosing an optimal pressure from these summarized data. Design: Prospective, single-center nonblinded study. Patients: Ten female/18 male patients with obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) (respiratory disturbance index [RDI] 67/h), 17 newly-initiated, 11 chronic CPAP users. Interventions: A custom CPAP device (Fisher & Paykel Healthcare) recording airflow and pre-programmed to vary CPAP between 2-3 cm H2O below and 1-2 cm H2O above prescription pressure as determined by a full laboratory titration. Results: Airflow and pressure continuously recorded for multiple nights (15.9 +/- 5.1 nights) at four to seven different pressures in each patient. SDB events manually scored from the airflow as apnea (airflow reduction > 90%), hypopnea (airflow reduction > 30% lasting 10 to 120 sec with inspiratory flow limitation [IFL]) and runs of sustained IFL > 2 min identified. RDI = (apnea + hypopnea)/total sleep time calculated for each night and an obstruction index, including sustained IFL, also was calculated. Pressure(Multinight) was obtained for each patient from multiple nights of data using two mathematical techniques. Night-to-night variability of SDB indices was low in some patients and significant in others. Pressure(Multinight) could be determined in 17 of 28 patients and was similar to the in-laboratory pressure. Conclusions: This study showed that recording multiple nights of CPAP airflow in the home and analyzing these data for residual SDB provided useful information, including the possibility of determining a therapeutic prescription for fixed CPAP in most patients and identification of others with significant physiologic variability of SDB.