Settings help for AirSense

[sleepyalpha]

Thanks Old Steve. I do sleep almost entirely on my side at least from what I know so it must be that somehow I was still chin-tucking with the collar last night. I'll try the tennis ball technique just in case tonight to make sure I'm on my back the whole night. Would it make sense to reduce EPR to 2 or 1 in conjunction? On 12/18 the OAs were very low at 0.56 but the CAs were still over 1.5.

[sleepyalpha]

OAs are now under 1, but CAs are still high.

   

[Old Steve]

I think that I mentioned in a post yesterday that if you get the positional apneas under control you could try setting your EPR to 1 and see if it helps the central apneas.

[paulag1955]

It's also possible that fixed pressure could help cut down the CAs.

[PeaceLoveAndPizza]

Do you still need ramp? If not try turning it off. It seems when ramp automatically turns off and pressure starts increasing you get a few to a cluster of CA’s. 

I think both Old Steve and Paula made good suggestions of things to try. I would add considering changing your pressure range from 7-13 to 8-14 with their recommended EPR 1 or 2. 

Going with a fixed pressure of 8 or 9 with an EPR of 1 of 2 would be an interesting thing to try as well. You may have a bit more flow limitations, but you could also have better quality sleep.

[sleepyalpha]

Thank you all. I turned off EPR and my ramp settings are the same as my min settings so I could as well turn it off. That did help with the CA events a bit. I set the pressure at 7.3-8.6 last night and it just hovered at 8.28 the whole night which did cause a lot more flow limitations. Surprisingly didn't feel as rested as the night before because I woke up a few times for some reason (I did have 1 drink last night though so may need one more night to see). 

   

[CPAPfriend]

We should exercise caution when saying what's causing what. From my understanding, this is your first week on CPAP, which is a significant change for the body, and what we see in lots of patients is the emergence of treatment-related central apneas. Adjusting settings too quickly can add more noise than signal, so I recommend changing things more slowly and gathering more data points per change. 

Your flow limit came up quite a lot in disabling EPR.

There's a strong correlation between your leaks and central apneas, which is something we would expect to see. It is clear to me that you are opening your mouth quite a bit with the pillows mask, so taping, soft-cervical collar, chinstrap, etc. is something you could try.

[Old Steve]

Sleepyalpha,

How much time is left on your AirSense 10 trial?

[paulag1955]

Sleepyalpha, did you have CA events during your sleep study?

[PeaceLoveAndPizza]

You are starting to dial in your settings. Overall things are looking much better. How do you feel with these settings?

I think adding a wee bit more pressure and possibly some EPR would help. Try setting your pressure range to 8-10 with or without EPR 1. Turn off ramp as it is doing nothing for you.