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Dr. Mansfield describes what sleep apnea test results will indicate to a physician.
Dr. Mansfield:
The sleep apnea test indicates anywhere between 4 and 14 or so components of your sleep. The home sleep diagnostic study will range between 4 and 8 or 9 parameters of sleep. The laboratory study will indicate up to 14 or so parameters of sleep. Those parameters of sleep will indicate number one, breathing. How many times per minute, per hour you stop breathing for a period long enough to affect your oxygen levels and we call that the AHI or the Apnea Hypopnea Index.
Five or less an hour in which you stop breathing for ten seconds or longer is probably normal, but greater than that is abnormal and the higher the number, the worse the problem. Number two, to tell you about your leg movements – how often are you kicking your legs, moving your legs, jumping your legs? It will tell you how you are breathing through your nose. It will tell you about your nasal signal. It will tell you about your sleep patterns.
There are generally four phases of sleep, your stages of sleep. It will tell you if you are doing them correctly. Are you actually accomplishing them? Are you getting into dream sleep? Many people with apnea never dream and in fact, if you are not dreaming that’s probably a sign that you should be tested. So these are parameters that are very carefully evaluated during your sleep, which then encompass a final evaluation of how your night sleep was.
About Dr. Mansfield, M.D.:
At the Senta Clinic, Dr. Perry Mansfield specializes in diseases related to head and neck oncology. Nationally recognized leader in skull base disorders, Dr. Mansfield created and developed one of the premiere centers for skull base surgery in the Southwestern United States. His role as a head and neck oncologist focuses on tumors of the anterior and middle skull base, such as squamous cell carcinomas and other disorders of salivary glands and sinuses.