User report: Löwenstein Prisma Smart Plus works very well with 1.5.0

[clan]

Jeff8356 wrote in the now closed release thread for 1.5.0[1] that "Prisma users should report any issues in the Software Support Forum along with which model they use.". I hope I am not making to much noise - but I am very happy to report that it works very nicely!

I am using the Löwenstein Prisma Smart Plus which is the bluetooth version.

It is identified in OSCAR as:
Brand: Löwenstein
Model: Prisma Smart (0x92)

I can find the firmware version (from memory something something 0006) and hardware revision (from memory 0x195) but it is not listed in OSCAR, and I do not have the SD card/machine at hand right now.

So no issues as such. Just happy to report the "plus" version also works nicely with OSCAR even though it was not listed in the wiki[2].

If any specific testing is needed I will be happy to help out. Computer litterate but not a great code shark. Just know enough to be dangerous.

Kind regards,
clan

New user so I am not allowed to link to:
[1] apneaboard.com in /forums/Thread-OSCAR-v1-5-0-released
[2] apneaboard.com in /wiki/index.php/OSCAR_supported_machines#L.C3.B6wenstein_.2F_Weinmann

[clan]

I was actually wondering what the difference was between "well supported" and "full supported". What I see looks just as good as with the Philips Dreamstaiton.

One really cool thing with the model is that "deep sleep" is marked as events. This makes it really easy to find the "good spots" in OSCAR.

Over 13 years my progression has been:
- Diagnosed with AHI of 80 and breathing pauses for up to around 70 seconds. In an hour I was not breathing more than I was breathing!
- 7 years with ResMed S9. Every night all night. AHI in the range 0.5 - 1.0. Life was good!
- S9 card reader stopped working so I was given a Philips Dreamstaion 1
- It was unpleasant using the Dreamstation. No help from sleep tech/nurse. Switch back and forth with S9 for about 3 years
- Finally figured out that the forced breathing pattern was caused by A-Flex/C-Flex and disabled it. Now it felt like the S9
- Due to foam gate I was given a Dreamstation 2 a year ago.
- In the 3 years I have been using the Dreamstation full time my AHI has slowly rised to around 2,5 - 3,5
- Half a year ago it got so bad that I tried the S9 again. Instant improvement!! After some time I did start to get a little challenged and needed to enable EPR

All my aggregate numbers look really good so I was told that all was very good and there was nothing really to do. I did however feel like sh*t. Never working anymore (self employed) as I could not concentrate and was always tired (knowledge worker). You guys know the drill.

I had no data from the S9. Sometimes during the night it simply stopped blowing but when I woke up it would start again. With 29.000 hours on the clock it was long past its prime.

Finally started looking into things using OSCAR. Without being and expert it was easy to see that the flow rates simply did not look nice. The final straw for me was when the sleep tech/nurse flat out refused to look at the data and insisted the AHI was fine. I decided to go my own way. I could either pay a sleep tech of my choice to analyse my data. And with the price of a ResMed 11 that seemed like the sensible thing to do. I did not want to risk another Philips! But research showed that cheaper can be better! The lower price convinced me to take the risk and shell out for a new machine first.

Found a research paper which compared most APAP machines on the market. And surprise: Philips scored considerably worse than all other vendors. To my surprise Löwensten Prisma and F&P Icon scored better than ResMed. F&P Icon had the very best control but (in this controlled test!) a max preassure of 15. The Prisma had very good control but peaked at 12. With that in mind I choose the Prisma.

As I started using EPR on the S9 I was happy to see that the prisma has SoftPAP which should provide even better control during exhale. I have not tried enabling it yet so I do not know how it feels.

All healthcare people kept telling me that there was only marginal differences between Philips and the rest. And I do believe it works well in pure CPAP mode. But their APAP implementation i truly horrific! It was killing me slowly - and nobody cared.

The Prisma is still brand new to me but after a couple of days I am already in love. Life is starting again! I will write a review when I have spent a little more time with it. But if you are in Europe it is a steal at EUR 600 for the regular prisma and EUR 620 with bluetooth. The android app is OK but it only reports AHI and Deep Sleep - but I can live with that for only EUR 20.