CPAP sticks on higher pressure after Obstructive Apnea event

[AlanR]

I have been using a ResMed Airsense 10/AIRSET since November 2018. it has worked fairly well  with a small number of events per night. Initially I had a lot of mouth leaking, perhaps related to my mouth breathing.  I switched from a nasal cushion/mask to a full face mask but that caused a lot of OA and H events. I went back and forth from nasal to full face masks and the OA always followed the face mask. I added a chin strap but still had leaking. Finally I learned about mouth taping. I now use 2-inch tape and cut it down to 1.5 inch and use a 4 inch length and this usually works well and stops the excess leaking.

Last night I slept well but woke up with a little drooling in the corner of my mouth, where the tape lost its seal. I tested and found I could exhale around the damp tape before I removed the tape. I wondered about leaking so I loaded up OSCAR and have attached the screen print of last night.

It shows a little increase in Leak starting at 04:31, associated with the start of apena events, then an increase in pressure starting at 04:36. The pressure rose until 4:38 when the apnea events stopped after 30 seconds of near total apnea.

My question is: Why does the pressure not return to a lower level faster? There is little flow limitation shown, so I would think that the pressure would drift back down sooner.

Thanks for ideas and comments, Alan

[PeaceLoveAndPizza]

Please post a chart of the entire night. In this one example you can see the flow limitations beginning, soon followed by the increase in pressure to open the airway.

Typically it stays high when it continues detecting flow limitations. They may be too small to see, but if you set the Y-axis scale on the flow limitation graph from 1.0 to 0.50 or 0.25, you will easily see them.

[AlanR]

PLAP,

Thanks for the clear reply. I changed the top of range for flow limitation to 0.25, attached below, and see the limitation that kept the pressure up.

Thanks for the help.

Alan

[staceyburke]

To reduce flow limits move the EPR higher.