Machine or operator adjustment?

[PaytonA]

Next we come to the chicken or the egg discussion. Do the higher leakage clusters cause the events or do the events cause the higher leakage clusters?

Flow Limitation and/or Snore cause pressure to be increased, which tends to increase leaks.

Also, events tend to cause arousals which can cause movement, causing increased or fluctuating leaks.

I guess that makes you are an egg man. I am a chicken most of the time myself.

It may be a bad joke but it is all I've got.

PaytonA

[zonk]

zonk said, "Unknown Apnea displayed in yellow color symbol"

When I used the nasal mask they were all yellow, open gob!

Yes, whenever unknown apnea scored does indicate high leak rate and the machine cannot tell whether apnea is obstructive or central

Some people with positional apnea, apnea is worse in supine position than sleeping on the side. Tennis ball placed inside a sock sewn on the back of pyjama top (or similar) helps avoiding turning on their backs which most of apnea occurs in this position and during REM sleep which I suspect that whats is happening during those clusters of obstructive events and than pressure dip right down to the minimum. The sleep study will show sleep stages and O2 levels during the night

[vsheline]

I just added the following edit to my earlier post.

START EDIT:
Correction: apparently the machine continues to record hypopnea and apnea events even during periods of extremely high Leak. I found in my data on nights having exceptionally high intermittent Leak that my ResScan detailed plots show hypopneas and apneas reported for times when the Leak was extremely high. In one case the reported hypopnea was at the very beginning of a 9 minute period when the Leak was a little over 100 Liters/minute. Before, during and after the reported hypopnea my SpO2 was rock steady at 94%. The "hypopnea" "ended" at a time when the Leak happened to dip for several seconds slightly below 100 L/m. Based on the SpO2, I think there was no real hypopnea, and the machine had been fooled. Most of the reported "Apneas" also tend to occur at the very start of a period when the Leak had just increased well above 75 L/m.
END EDIT

[comatose]

zonk said, "Unknown Apnea displayed in yellow color symbol"

When I used the nasal mask they were all yellow, open gob!

Yes, whenever unknown apnea scored does indicate high leak rate and the machine cannot tell whether apnea is obstructive or central

Some people with positional apnea, apnea is worse in supine position than sleeping on the side. Tennis ball placed inside a sock sewn on the back of pyjama top (or similar) helps avoiding turning on their backs which most of apnea occurs in this position and during REM sleep which I suspect that whats is happening during those clusters of obstructive events and than pressure dip right down to the minimum. The sleep study will show sleep stages and O2 levels during the night

zonk, I am not sure about the tennis ball, my back has worked hard and is a little worse for wear, but you are right in thinking I am a back sleeper. Tiz something else to contemplate tho.......

AHI last night went up to 13.

This is a fairly good example of the yellow bars, bad mask leaks, snoring.
The machine was set to CPAP 10 cmH2O, AHI was 30.5

[me50]

Just throwing my hat in here too...

I've been chasing my leak rate for some time. My AHI is/was doing great if it was below '10'. Magically, now that my leak rate is really low, all of a sudden, my AHI numbers have dropped as well. We're talking an average of '2' - '4' most of the time now, and in the beginning, I was lucky to see a '10' once a week.

I've been tracking since NOV now, and it's only been the last 3 weeks or so that I've seen my numbers improve.

that is awesome Peter_C

[me50]

I think you are making changes before you have time to adapt to those changes. Changing pressures every few days does not give you a chance to see how that pressure or pressure range will work. Hopefully your sleep study will go well and give you a starting point with pressure and will see what your leak issues are like with the mask you are currently using. Let us know how it goes.

[vsheline]

Some people with positional apnea, apnea is worse in supine position than sleeping on the side. Tennis ball placed inside a sock sewn on the back of pyjama top (or similar) helps avoiding turning on their backs which most of apnea occurs in this position and during REM sleep which I suspect that whats is happening during those clusters of obstructive events and than pressure dip right down to the minimum.

zonk, I am not sure about the tennis ball, my back has worked hard and is a little worse for wear, but you are right in thinking I am a back sleeper. Tiz something else to contemplate tho.......

Hi Comatose,

You will probably need to do more than merely contemplate doing something to stay off your back.

You will be amazed at the huge difference it makes (those apneas will mostly disappear) when you do something to make sure you are never sleeping on your back.

I sleep on my side and need a thick foam mattress topper so my hips do not become bruised or sore from being slept on all the time.

Take care,
--- Vaughn

[zonk]

zonk, I am not sure about the tennis ball, my back has worked hard and is a little worse for wear, but you are right in thinking I am a back sleeper. Tiz something else to contemplate tho.......

[Peter_C]

Just throwing my hat in here too...

I've been chasing my leak rate for some time. My AHI is/was doing great if it was below '10'. Magically, now that my leak rate is really low, all of a sudden, my AHI numbers have dropped as well. We're talking an average of '2' - '4' most of the time now, and in the beginning, I was lucky to see a '10' once a week.

I've been tracking since NOV now, and it's only been the last 3 weeks or so that I've seen my numbers improve.

that is awesome Peter_C

What sucks though is I have to use a FFM to make it work. Oh well - the price of being a hosehead..

[Peter_C]

zonk, I am not sure about the tennis ball, my back has worked hard and is a little worse for wear, but you are right in thinking I am a back sleeper. Tiz something else to contemplate tho.......

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