Diagnosed with copd and osa O2 and heart rate go low during sleep when O2 is low pulse is up when O2 is normal pulse drops low am on cpapoxygen advair-spiriva-volmaxatenolol any suggestions?

Answer 1

Two things. I am going to assume (forgive me if I am mistaken) that you are either a current or a former smoker. The first thing I would say is that if you are continuing to smoke, you must stop immediately. Your smoking has caused these health problems, and the only chance you have to live depends absolutely on your quitting cigarettes. Secondly, I would strongly advise you to schedule an appointment with either your family doctor, your pulmonologist, or your sleep doctor as soon as possible. What you are describing sounds to me a bit like a poorly-fitted or poorly-adjusted CPAP. Sometimes the solution can be something as simple as a more properly-sized CPAP mask. Sometimes the amount of pressure needs to be increased. Regardless, I would recommend that you get help quickly to resolve this. It is also critical that you ensure that it is appropriate for you to be on supplemental oxygen. In many patients with COPD, there is what is called a ventilation-perfusion mismatch which causes carbon dioxide to be abnormally retained by the lungs instead of released back into the environment as intended. This carbon dioxide retention can cause the acid-base balance of the body to be disrupted, and can cause serious health problems, even death. You should probably have an arterial blood gas test performed to determine if this is happening to you. Incidentally, the reason your pulse goes up when the oxygen is low is that your body recognizes that it is starving for oxygen and signals the heart to increase blood flow. This would be great if the reason the oxygen was low was due to low blood flow. In your case, however, it is because you are not getting enough oxygen into your lungs. The increased heart rate only serves to increase the metabolic needs of your body, making the problem worse. This is why obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a risk factor for Heart disease - it causes the heart to work harder and harder with less and less oxygen.