[CPAP] F&P SleepStyle SPSAAN vs Resmed AirSense 10 AutoSet

[Apnea Infant]

Long term exhaustion brought on by disturbed sleep as we all know really knocks us all. I lost a lot of confidence and was mightily paranoid when I first started. It was hard to trust and I so desperately wanted to trust as I so desperately needed to get sleep. I so desperately wanted to be myself again. I do not believe that sleep doctors / hospitals / sleep clinics are geared up to provide the daily/nightly care novices to sleep apnea need especially in the early weeks. I read the posts here a good deal and I believe your DMEs/RTs/Sleep Consultants should quit being so possessive of and quit wanting to be in control of ongoing therapy.

CSAs as you have researched do settle down for most of us-myself being a case in point. I did not trust and thought that an Autoset would be better for my diagnosed REM sleep apnea. Why have the constant prescribed of 11.6cmH2O when my apneas only occurred in REM sleep. And so I bought the 'For Her' out of my own pocket. My pressure needs are exactly the same for the CPAP as the APAP. As an experiment I have now returned to the Elite with fixed pressure thinking the fluctuating pressures was disturbing my sleep as I persist in waking up 2 -3 times a night. However i do that with the Elite too at constant pressure.

But I feel good despite all this.

[binoscope]

New CPAP user, and have somewhat successfully completed the first night. The demo machine I was given to try is a F&P SleepStyle SPSAAN (nasal pillow mask), which I gather is a fairly new model. If I stick with it, the price for the package is $2400 CDN -- very high, and I have no insurance! My wife uses a CPAP (Resmed S9 auto) which we bought from a Canadian on line store. Their current model is the Resmed AirSense 10 AutoSet for $1000. Much better price (for Canada).

Last night I had a hard time going to sleep, which I guess is probably not that unusual for a first try. The only real issue that I had besides the discomfort of wearing something on my face was that when I exhale, just before I finish exhaling, or when I don't immediately follow an exhale with an inhale, I occasionally feel the pressure build up, and air flow leaking out around the nose piece. It sometimes gives a feeling of a choking - blocked airway -- not being able to freely exhale. I understand that this new F&P model is supposedly improved and has an expiratory relief feature which I think is supposed to reduce this issue. In the office setup I complained about the sensation and the technician made some adjustments which did help, but has not eliminated the feeling all the time.

So my questions. Is the Resmed AirSense 10 AutoSet going to be any different? Better or worse? Would I be taking a big risk by buying the Resmed without an actual trial of that model? My wife likes her S9. 

Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated. For what it is worth I was diagnosed with an AHI of 37.3/hr. My provider has restricted my access to data, but I think I saw an AHI of 6 flash on briefly when I shut it down this AM

Ron

I have been using the 2018 Sleepstyle for about 3 months with a nasal mask rather than pillows. I have just last evening swapped to trial a Airsense 10 with one of the Resmed nasal masks. I had issues breathing out at first on the sleepstyle but I have since changed the settings so that the max pressure is lower closer to the 90 percentile max number that you can get from your provider printing out the data the machine gathers. I do use expiatory relief on a setting of 1 seems to be enough. I have heard that nasal pillows are harder to tolerate as there is less umm give I suppose you would call it. Don't be concerned about AHI number for the first month or so they will sort themselves out over time, hopefully you can see my attachment jpg showing my AHI over the few few months. I do like the F&P but the Resmed airsense 10 autoset seems to at first try feel about the same to sleep with. Both are top end machines. If you get the Resmed because of price beware of the different models you want the one that can auto adjust, rather than a fixed pressure.

[Ron AKA]

I have been using the 2018 Sleepstyle for about 3 months with a nasal mask rather than pillows. I have just last evening swapped to trial a Airsense 10 with one of the Resmed nasal masks. I had issues breathing out at first on the sleepstyle but I have since changed the settings so that the max pressure is lower closer to the 90 percentile max number that you can get from your provider printing out the data the machine gathers. I do use expiatory relief on a setting of 1 seems to be enough. I have heard that nasal pillows are harder to tolerate as there is less umm give I suppose you would call it. Don't be concerned about AHI number for the first month or so they will sort themselves out over time, hopefully you can see my attachment jpg showing my AHI over the few few months. I do like the F&P but the Resmed airsense 10 autoset seems to at first try feel about the same to sleep with. Both are top end machines. If you get the Resmed because of price beware of the different models you want the one that can auto adjust, rather than a fixed pressure.

Thank you for the comments. You are making great progress with your AHI. My main issue with AHI is the central apnea component which initially increased by about 8 times on the initiation of CPAP treatment. It has made it hard to make consistent progress. I bought the AirSense 10 Autoset for $900. It was an easy choice as I have no insurance and have to pay out of my own pocket. I have not found the SleepStyle offered in on line stores, and locally costs $2400. It is a no brainer here. But that said, I do like the additional features that the AirSense has. I don't think the AirSense has any outright advantage over the SleepStyle in achieving low AHI. My access to the SleepStyle data was limited, but they told me when I returned it my average over the two weeks was 3.7 for AHI. That included one night when I switched machines with my wife so I could get SleepyHead data for myself. She got an exceptional 0.2 for AHI and brought my average down. I did not tell the sleep clinic about that part...

I have tried two different approaches with the AirSense 10. First I went with higher min and max pressures and full time 3 cm EPR. That gave me an average CA index of 2.5 plus a OA index of 1.8. More recently I have taken another approach. I now use EPR for comfort on the Auto Ramp only and no EPR on the sleep portion of the night. This allows me to reduce the min and max pressures. If find mask comfort has improved with the lower max pressure, and my numbers have improved. I'm averaging 1.7 for CA, and 0.6 for OA. CA has been reduced by 32% and OA by 68%. This seems to be the ticket for me, but everyone can be different. 

I would say that the main advantages of the ResMed over the F&P include the Auto Ramp feature on the ResMed which works very well for me. Having the ability to selectively put EPR on the ramp but not full time has been helpful. The ability to set the Ramp Start pressure adds to comfort. I use 7.6 cm. And the ability to use SleepyHead has been major. I would be lost without it. I also like the controls layout and screen better on the ResMed, but that is minor. I use the SmartStart feature on the ResMed to start my machine, but the on off switch to stop it. But those are somewhat cosmetic issues. 

Wish you well with your selection. I have no regrets in choosing the ResMed...