CPAP or APAP?

[DariaVader]

I am really glad that I lucked out and got a DME that gives the Autoset as the standard! I say luck, because I did not find this forum until after I had already gotten it. That said, I am thankful that the autoset will treat me with just enough but not too much pressure, and that it will respond to need and I don't have to go through having a high AHI for a couple of weeks to get more pressure. my charts show me running most of the time at a comfortable 8 to 10, but there are a couple of times a night that it goes to 12 or 13, and if I was on 10 or 11, those would probably be events. The lower pressure for the times I don't need more is more comfortable, by far. Count me as someone who would push for an autoset.

I had the same dumb luck. The sleep center somehow came up with an Rx for a constant 17 cm-H2O. The DME gave me a ResMed S9 AutoSet. After one night, I found this forum and grabbed the ResScan software to see my results. My AHI has pretty much always been below 1 per hour so I contacted my nurse-practitioner after 3 weeks and put the machine in AutoSet at a very conservative 15/17. I've since backed it off to 14/17 and swapped from a nasal mask to ResMed P10 nasal pillows. I should probably back it off a bit more but my results are so good that I stopped pulling out the SD card to look at them and just hit the Info button on the machine when I turn it off in the morning to see the AHI number.

I can't imagine not having a data-capable AutoSet machine. I don't see how you'd ever get your pressure settings dialed in.

I may get corrected on this, but my impression is that you are best off with the lowest pressure that will treat you and is comfortable and that higher pressures are implicated in central apnea, glaucoma, and inner ear disturbances. This makes sense to me. In that case, I would think that you would want the low as low as is comfy for breathing, and the high high enough to keep your AHI in check. If you are hitting the limit all the time, you either need to set it higher, or fix leaks.

[Ghost1958]

My lab titrated pressure was 15. Which quickly was shown to be to low with a FFM needing 18cm Considerably lower with a nasal. Down to 14 though I leave it at 18 but it barely ever touches 14 on a nasal mask. Maybe once a week

You could safely drop your min pressure to 10. That would give you a 7 cm spread get the constant pressure off you but give the machine a narrow enough spread to respond quickly. JMO

[GeoffD]

I may get corrected on this, but my impression is that you are best off with the lowest pressure that will treat you and is comfortable and that higher pressures are implicated in central apnea, glaucoma, and inner ear disturbances. This makes sense to me. In that case, I would think that you would want the low as low as is comfy for breathing, and the high high enough to keep your AHI in check. If you are hitting the limit all the time, you either need to set it higher, or fix leaks.

I agree. I just bought my own ResMed S9 AutoSet from Supplier #2. I changed jobs and my DME doesn't take my new health insurance. I'll start out at the 14/17 AutoSet I'm using now and start dropping the lower bound pressure. I don't have leak issues with P10 nasal pillows and the machine rarely bumps up from the base 14 cm-H2O setting since I rarely have more than a few events per night.