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A Need To Resolve The Many Differing Opinions Regarding The Apnea Hypopnea IndexCannot Measure Accurately Enough Another shortcoming in the apnea hypopnea index, according to its detractors is that it cannot be measured easily and the main reason for this is the lack of proper accuracy of devices being used that monitor the airflow in the patient while he or she is asleep. A case in point is use of thermistors which are devices that won't really detect any airflow, except when hot air is being passed. Furthermore, apnea hypopnea index can also provide misleading information to physicians regarding sleep disordered breathing. However, those who defend apnea hypopnea index say that while it is not perfect, it does have its uses, and besides, there is continuing efforts being made to further improve the apnea hypopnea index as witnessed when the American Academy of Sleep Medicine had recently tried to make the index more standardized, and there is also ongoing work that is trying to define the normal range of the index. Proponents of the apnea hypopnea index say that the values obtained can in fact, be correlated to the symptoms of sleep disordered breathing, though the comparisons may be nothing better than mediocre at best. Still, it is not a total zero either. Whatever may be the merits or demerits of apnea hypopnea index, it is still an index of how severe is both apnea and hypopnea and by combining these two disorders, gives an overall severity of the sleep apnea condition that also includes disruptions in sleep as well as when levels of oxygen in the blood have fallen to a low level. Thus, the index can be calculated by taking the number of apneas and hypopneas and dividing them with the numbers of hours slept. What it all boils down to is that if you have an apnea hypopnea index of minimum fifteen episodes per hour without any medical problems that are sleep related, then you are diagnosed as having sleep apnea. It is now up to the medical fraternity to come to an agreement whether such apnea hypopnea index is useful or not. |
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