Sierra

The SD card is the standard HC, not the tiny micro or mini one. If you have a card reader that takes the standard HC card in your laptop it should work. If you don't have a SD card reader in your laptop or computer you can buy a small portable reader that fits into your USB port for $10 or less. As long as you have had the card in your machine all the data since you started using it (up to about a year) should be still on it.

This is the kind of information you can get from it. This shows the period of time while going to sleep. There is a short apnea event which was not flagged, and then a longer one that is flagged as an OA or Obstructive Apnea even. The first step would be to find out if you are having apnea events, and if so what type they are.

It sounds like you have a ResMed AutoSet 10 or 11? Is that correct? . If so one of the best things you can do is download OSCAR and view the detailed data collected by the machine. You will need a PC or Mac and a SD card reader. Once you have some data you can post the daily report here for comments.

If you are going to meet with your doctor or technician you should be sure to bring your SD card with the detailed data on it for them to review. Make sure you have a SD card in the machine that is collecting data, or it will be forever lost. It only needs a 4 GB card, but I believe up to a 32 will work.

Unfortunately the data that is sent by WiFi is very limited. You will be able to see pretty much the same thing by looking at the sleep report on the machine itself. The data you can download with OSCAR is much more detailed. If you could post a screen from OSCAR I could determine much more about how your machine is set up, and what the problem might be.

Do you know the breakdown of your total AHI? How much is obstructive (OA events), and how much is central apnea (CA events). They are quite different issues. Most of my events are CA or central apnea events. You can see them as the magenta flags in the screenshot. OA events for me are less frequent. They are the light blue ones. I have progressed from that screenshot I posted above to much better outcomes more recently, like the one shown below.

You may want to also download the Clinical Guide for the AirCurve 10 VAuto. See the link below and click on the link with this name. The site is in Italian (I think...) but the Clinical Guide PDF is in English. Clinical guides are hard to find on the net.

AirCuve 10 VAuto Clinical Guide

Ok, I know which machines you are talking about. Was there a reason why you were switched from the AirSense 10 AutoSet to the AirCurve 10 VAuto?

On the AutoSet 10 a setting of 10 for a low and 15 for a high is fairly standard. The units are manometer readings of cm of water. The same units are used for both types of machines. The AutoSet should also have had a EPR ore (Expiratory Pressure relief) setting as well. Commonly they are set to 3 cm, which means the pressure is reduced 3 cm on exhale compared to inhale.

The VAuto is a little more complicated. The Maximum Inspiration Pressure (IPAP) can be set up to 25 cm which is 5 more than the AutoSet. The minimum Exhale Pressure (EPAP) can be set as well. In addition the differential between the IPAP and EPAP can be set as to as much as 10 cm. This compares to the AutoSet EPR which is a maximum of 3 cm differential. From the numbers you gave it appears they are not taking advantage of the higher pressure that the VAuto is capable of, so I presume they are using more Pressure Support, which may be 4 cm, which is not much of an increase.

Is there any chance that you have the SD card from the AutoSense 10 still around? If so, then you would be able to download the data (with a PC or Mac and a SD card reader) so you could view all the detail with OSCAR program which is freeware. It would show how many apnea events you were having, the type, and at what pressures. If you do this load the A10 data in first, and then also add your AirCurve 10 data. It can handle them both. Then you will be able to compare what the VAuto is doing compared to the A10. You can also post the daily report screen here for comments. Here is an example of what one from an A10 looks like. In most cases one can determine what is causing the apnea events and then make adjustments to try and address it.

This is from when I first started with the A10 and was having lots of trouble.

Welcome to the forum. First I think we should clarify the machine types. A ResMed AirSense 10 is actually a APAP, not a BiPAP. ResMed calls their BiPAP machine the AirCurve 10. So do you have an AirCurve 10 or AirSense 10 AutoSet? And what specific CPAP machine did you have before?

Regardless of the type of machine you switched to, the frequency should not be taking such a jump upwards. Do you what pressure the CPAP was set at? And what pressure range the new machine is set at? The standard for treatment is still to be less than 5 and ideally under 1 if practical.

If you can clarify details about your machine and the pressures, I can probably narrow down what the issue might be.

It is easy to switch the machine to fixed pressure CPAP mode. If you can get a low AHI with a fixed pressure of 10 cm then that would be a good thing to try. With respect to the dry mouth and nose, so you have a heated hose on the machine. If you do it will set the humidity control at auto which should get the humidity right. The other possibility if you are using a nasal mask is that you are opening your mouth while sleeping. That lets air escape and can give you a very dry mouth.

If you only need 10 cm then you can easily switch the mode to CPAP and then set the pressure at 10 cm if that will control your apnea. Sometimes the Auto mode can get carried away with raising pressure and limiting it with CPAP mode. That is the way I have mine currently set to a fixed 11 cm.

Do you have a heated hose for the machine? If you do then the Climate Control can be set to Auto and that can help with the dryness of the nose and mouth.

What this will do is show you if you are actually having an apnea event, when it is happening, and at what pressure. This will help determine if it could be solved with more pressure if it is an obstructive event, or perhaps less pressure if it is a central event (open airway).