SALT LAKE CITY — Automatically titrated continuous positive airway pressure appears to be an effective option for the management of obstructive sleep apnea in patients who fail to adhere to the standard of manually titrated CPAP.
Of 57 patients who were poorly compliant (defined in this study as using CPAP for 2–4 hours during a study night) or noncompliant (defined as using CPAP for less than 2 hours during a study night), 72% were compliant with auto-CPAP, Vincenza E. Castronovo, Ph.D., reported at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.
The patients were a subgroup of 509 consecutive patients with severe obstructive sleep apnea who underwent one full night of polysomnography with manual CPAP titration, and who were noncompliant during that night. These patients received the auto-CPAP treatment one night after receiving the manual titration CPAP, and used it for a mean of 6.7 hours with an average pressure of 8.4 cm H2O and a 90th centile pressure of 10.2 cm H2O, said Dr. Castronovo of the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan.