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Does high pressure of CPAP cause changes to Lung Tissues??
Does haveing high pressure in lungs all night cause any changes to lung tissues?
I would think they would adapt and then require high pressures to continue transfer of gases across membranes!
If I need such high pressure to during night, what happens during day.
I'm not taking about obstructive apnea. At least night in the throat.
Is there obstruction in the lungs?? does the pressure keep the lungs open or just force air deeper into the lungs?
My initial assumption, after using O2 ring to see such extreme drops in O2 was that when sleeping and breathing very shallow that the lung tissue involved was somehow compromised. That's why I originally went to a Lung Doctor. Jerk.
Now with ASV machine. I can keep the "events" down but unless pressures are high 14-24 all the time. If I try to set the lower limit lower and allow the machine to go to 24 if needed, The events still stay low but the O2 concentration seen by my O2 Ring is spread out between 90-100 rather then 95-100. (by the way, O2 not seen by sleep doctors, who only look at the machine data which only knows flow & events) .
So my question to any real doctors at this site, is:
are the any lung tissue changes due to CPAP Pressures?
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@drwass2, Connect members are patients like yourself and can only share their experiences and not provide a diagnosis and advice. I'm not sure if these references will answer your question but may give you some insight.
-- Clinical side effects of continuous positive airway pressure in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/resp.13808
-- Airway stability in sleep apnea: Assessing continuous positive airway pressure efficiency:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569904824000582
Have you discussed your question with your sleep medicine doctor or care team?
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1 ReactionUnless there us an associated disorder or disease that a high pressure might exacerbate, no. People who play wind instruments professionally or as avid enthusiasts do so for decades and don't seem to have lung issues. I think of oboists, clarinetists....bagpipe players whose arms squeeze the bags forcefully, which causes a lot of backpressure against the mouthpiece....nope, very few reports of distended lungs beyond what is 'normal' for such instrumentalists.
In fact, even the highest pressures of CPAP are less than that required to blow against a reed and to get it vibrating in a controlled way that playing a clarinet would require....to keep being invited back with pay. 😀
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4 ReactionsI use a cpap and think the pressure only stimulates you to take a breath through nose/mouth or both and doesn’t force pressure directly through your trachea into your lungs. I am relaxed when breathing through my cpap and don’t feel like the machine is blowing up my lungs like a balloon.
Some CPAP machines will give you some pressure flutters to stimulate you to breath if you have what it feels is (in RESMED's terminology) an 'open airway'. This is effectively what central sleep apnea is if it is not complex. Complex sleep apnea also has obstructive sleep apnea, so it won't always see an 'open airway'... which stands to reason for someone who has an obstruction. If only central, and no obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), the airway remains open, but the brain doesn't stimulate the person to breathe.
Incidentally, those puffs also serve to help the machine to determine if it has an open airway. If it's closed, it feels the puffs blowing back. If it's open, no backpressure is sensed, and it acts accordingly...you are in CSA.
What the pressure in a CPAP prescription does is called 'splinting' the airway. It keeps the airway from collapsing on itself. It doesn't stimulate you to breathe, as you stated above. Instead, it allows you to breathe.