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mikerofone
+0 points
·
almost 4 years
ago
Original Poster
My wife and I bought a vacation home so I bought a new CPAP machine online to keep at the second house - a ResMed AirSense 10. My primary doc provided a scrip for it but not having access to my original diagnosis/prescription (more than 10 years ago) he prescribed a generic pressure range of 4-20.
I've used it for 7 nights now and two out of those seven nights I have had just over 5 (5.2, 5.3) events per hour. My mask/headgear are brand new and I'm a side sleeper so changing those factors won't help. I'd like it to be consistently under 5 and closer to 1 most nights.
Can/will changing the pressure range help accomplish this?
Sierra
+0 points
·
almost 4 years
ago
Sleep
Patron
Yes, usually you can improve on the AHI by increasing the minimum pressure and reducing the maximum pressure. And once you narrow down the pressure needed the best AHI can sometimes be achieved with a fixed pressure rather than automatic. But, first I would suggest setting your machine to get the enhanced sleep report so you can see how much of your AHI is CA events vs OA events. More pressure will not make CA events better because the airway is already open. More pressure can aggravate CA events. You can also see the 95% pressure which is a general indicator of how much pressure you really need. See page 17 in the manual at the link below. You want to set the Essentials parameter to Plus to get the enhanced sleep report.
The best way however to view your sleep data is to use a software program called OSCAR. It needs a PC or Mac and a SD card reader to get the data from your machine. It lets you view graphs of all the data captured. Then you can see when you are having events and at what pressure they are happening at.
mikerofone
+0 points
·
almost 4 years
ago
Original Poster
Thanks very much for the advice. Unfortunately my Mac won't allow me to download OSCAR. In terms of increasing minimum pressure and decreasing maximum pressure (already set to 4-20), the manual says 4 is the maximum number for the minimum pressure and that 20 is the minimum number to set the maximum pressure, so I'm not sure how to increase the minimum and decrease the maximum?
Sierra
+0 points
·
almost 4 years
ago
Sleep
Patron
Have you set the Essentials to Plus so you can see the enhanced sleep report? When you do the 95% pressure will give you a good idea what pressure you need. It would also be helpful to know what your breakdown of CA and OA events are. That will tell you if central apnea could be an issue.
You can't set the minimum pressure lower than 4 cm, but you can set it higher. As a general rule I suggest 7 cm for a minimum. If you can give me the 95% pressure from the sleep report and the breakdown of CA and OA events I can give you a better idea what you might want to consider for settings.
I'm in the process of setting up my 'dream mapper' software to see my report. But the real report is how you feel the next day.
If the sleep goes right, your brain is refreshed and sharp. I don't like the auto machines, my lungs expand like balloons , pressure
gets so high. The only way I have found to get the pressure settings that work, including 'c-flex', is to change setting by small amounts and sleep
with them. I had to switch back to my older resperonics machine the last 2 nights because the newer 'dream station', though the settings were matched, didn't do the job. I'll have to tinker with it, making pressure changes to see what does work.
If you use OSCAR to view your results from the machine you can get a lot more detail on what is going on through the night. It requires a PC or Mac and a SD card reader. If you still have your old machine SD card you can load the data from that first, and then add the data from the new machine. That is a way you can compare results with the old machine to the new one.
I have been reading lots of your really helpful Posts and was wandering if you could look at my Oscar report please to help me discover what I need to adjust my pressure settings to..Im having a rough time with it...
Sierra
+0 points
·
almost 4 years
ago
Sleep
Patron
Sure, I will look at it. It is best to start a new thread. If you have a PC just do a F12 to save a screen shot, and take note in the bottom right where it is saved. Then use File Explorer to find the file. Left click on it and drag it to the body of the message. It should upload. But since you are a new user it may get delayed before it is posted, so you will have to be patient. Just post one image and that seems to speed things up a bit. The daily report is the one of most use.
Too much maximum pressure could create central apneas. So as Sierra said come down on the max pressure. Eventually upping the minimum pressure you will find the sweet spot to decrease (prevent them in the first place) events. Hopefully the difference in Pressure support will come in eventually. I take it you have an autoset? aka APAP.
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