Pressure Settings for UARS Mild Apnea, Airsense 10

[risherwood]

            Hi everyone,

I am looking for help dialing in my pressure settings. I have been diagnosed with UARS via Lofta WatchPAT test. RDI 5.5, AHI 1.5. I'm 28 years old, male, in decent physical shape / not obese.

Symptoms: I have always felt exhausted even after a full night's sleep, which is why I took the sleep study. 

Where I am now: I've purchased an Airsense 10, found a mask that worked (Resmed N30i), and have been mostly on 4-8 pressure with EPR set to 2 and humidification on. I use mouth tape at night.

I've seen conflicting advice on where to set my pressure and if EPR is hurting or helping. I haven't had a titration study, only Lofta. So far, I've done about 20 days on APAP, and had 2-3 really good days where I felt very refreshed and happy. Most other days are somewhere in the middle.

Where I Need Help: If anyone has advice on pressure settings based on the sleep data I've added, I would be very appreciative.

Happy to post sleep study results or other OSCAR data. 

Thank you!

[staceyburke]

Ok I think we need to explain EPR (exhale pressure relief)

To begin with all cpap machines have a min pressure of 4.  That means that it can NOT go lower than 4.

EPR subtracts the EPR pressure from the min to get the exhale pressure.  So if you have it set as a min 7 - EPR 3= Exhale pressure of 4.  The lowest any cpap can go.


If you have Min 5 - EPR 3 would equal 2 BUT IT CAN NOT GO LOWER THAN 4.  So min 5 - EPR 3 = 4.


Your flow limits are high and that raises the pressure to stop them from becoming O or H events.  To help flow limits we use EPR.  I would suggest you set the min to 7 and EPR 3 to see how this works for you.  That would give you an inhale pressure of 7 and exhale pressure of 4.

Min 7
EPR full time 3
max 10

[risherwood]

Thank you so much for the quick response! I will definitely try those settings and the EPR thing makes a lot more sense now. I assumed that because my OSCAR data showed a max of 8.4 that I wouldnt need to go any higher than that. Any reason to have 10 as opposed to something like 9? 

To confirm, with your suggested settings, I will be by default inhaling 7, exhaling 4. But when there is an event, my pressure can ramp all the way up to 10 inhale and 7 exhale? Is that correct? 

Would having a lower flow limitation in OSCAR after changing these settings indicate I'm on the right track?

THANK YOU!

[risherwood]

Quick update, I tried those recommended settings of 7 min, 10 max, with EPR 3 and my symptoms appear to have gotten worse. I feel pretty fatigued today. See attached data.