POLL: Do You Have a Narrow or Wide Xpap Pressure Range (ed)

[echo]

I don't get it.

I think your pressure settings are REALLY off jnk, perhaps you mixed up the "3" and the "7" and in fact your auto range should really be at "7". sheesh some people.

stop dialwinging your guitar and start dialwinging your xpap!

[mars]

mars, apparently you suffer from Expressive Sarcasm Disorder (ESD) and thus might benefit from the use of the SarcMarc (TM)(R)(C)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/n ... usion.html

Hi Echo

Question - how can you have "expressive" sarcasm disorder on an on-line forum?

http://www.answerbag.com/expressive-language-disorder

Or is it my penny farthing you are thinking of? And should not the term be paradoxical sarcasm disorder

Anyhow, I am committed to cutting down on my sarcast comments

Surely the SarcMark is for those whose sarcasm is open to doubt, and then gets taken seriously. I take pride in my sarcasm, and refuse to accept responsibility should anyone take me seriously.

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2010/01/sarcm ... sm-online/

And when would you know whether or not the SarcMarc itself was an expression of sarcasm?

Hi JNK

Sorry about your figure problem. Tell you what, just add the 3 and the 7 and divide by 2, that will get you 5, and that will do. But as you already polled it doesn't really matter.

Do you want me to add a rider to everybody explaining this when the poll is published?

In the meantime, I am joining -

http://www.sarcasmsociety.com/

just to make sure I get it right.

cheers

Mars

PS Please poll if you have not already done so. Thanks

[jnk]

. . . Do you want me to add a rider to everybody explaining this when the poll is published? . . .

Nah. It's usually good to leave something for the peer-review process so that they can feel all proud of themselves for noticing something.

My form of sarcasm is that I go out of my way never to "get" anyone else's sarcasm. That really frustrates them, which makes me smile deep inside.

[echo]

Or is it my penny farthing you are thinking of? And should not the term be paradoxical sarcasm disorder

huh? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny-farthing ... I'm sure you're using some other meaning of that phrase but ...

Oh yes PSD sounds much more accurate!

My form of sarcasm is that I go out of my way never to "get" anyone else's sarcasm. That really frustrates them, which makes me smile deep inside.

In my case, i just DON'T get it, period. I'm a literal kinda gal. That's not sarcsasm. irony perhaps

looks like this thread is never going to get back on track (not sarcasm)

[Uncle_Bob]

Well I'm still trying to get my head around the "range" idea and why some people prefer either narrow or wide pressure ranges.

I know with the S9 the algorithm is new but its my understanding that the only purpose the upper value serves is to stop the machine exceeding that pressure value

In other words the upper value is not used in the part of the algorithm that actually decides what pressure should be being delivered at any one time

Having said that I have my range narrow because i know if i go much over 10 I'm going to get centrals anyway, but i wonder what other reasons patients or doctors use to justify either a narrow or wide range

I'm still playing around with my range value on my S9 and can not make much sense of it at all

[jnk]

. . . trying to get my head around the "range" idea and why some people prefer either narrow or wide pressure ranges. . .

My understanding is that a number of experienced users here (meaning much more experienced than I am) have discovered that having the minimum up within a cm or two of what is needed to stop obstructive apneas seems to allow the autos to be more effective in preventing events for many and seems to be more comfortable for them.

This is not a concept that many sleep doctors or manufacturers are on board with, though. Manufacturers sell their autos to be run with a wide open range, 4-25, and that is what most sleep docs mean by "using an auto." To them, one of the main purposes of an auto is to not have to titrate. The self-titrators on this board, on the other hand, have found that they can tweak some extra effectiveness and comfort out of their autos by raising their own minimum.

Keeping the maximum at the maximum that the machine allows, as has been stated, is not really a problem for most with plain vanilla OSA, unless a machine tends to run away in the sense of continuing to raise pressure to an uncomfortable level for no good reason. Someone with a tendency toward pressure-related centrals or who has been prescribed a CPAP to treat centrals along with their obstructive events may have a good reason for keeping the maximum low and running in a very narrow range. Personally, I think straight CPAP might be better for someone doing that, though, in many cases.

That is my understanding as a patient in trying to trace the history of things stated on this board.

jeff

ps- See, I can be on-topic when I have to be!

[Jason J Cruz]

Jason J Cruz

I was given a sleep study and a sleep doctor orderd me a Machine ResMed S8 It's set at CPAP Pressure 18.0 Start CPAP 8.0 Now if i change the CPAP pressure do i have to Change the Start CPAP pressure ? I know how to get into the menu and have access to all the settings.... Please provide more info on ----- CPAP Pressure i was at 16 wheni did the sleep study.

Thank you Jason J Cruz

[Janknitz]

I started out with a narrow range--9 to 13, but I was having some waking and hot flashes at night. When we looked at my data, everything looked really good except that I was bumping up against that pressure of 13 quite a bit. So my RT suggested bumping it up to 15, now I'm 9 to 15.

I really feel that I'm sleeping better. It's only been a week, so I can't say if it's just a coincidence, or if I'm really doing better because I have sufficient pressure to deal with whatever is happening. But I'm happy. I will look at my data this weekend.

[Amigo]

I chose the "changing/experimenting" option, but do not mean to imply that I make changes all that frequently or on a whim.

When I moved from a CPAP set at 12, to an APAP, I set the range at 10 - 14. I quickly found that I needed more pressure initially so I changed the range to 11 - 14.

Unfortunately, that still didn't seem to be quite enough so I'm now at 12 - 14, and doing well (current nightly maximum is 13.1).

I'll be interested to check the stats on my new PR1 after a month or so, and then may do more tweaking.

[rosacer]

I set it 6.5 - 15 at the beginning when I changed to APAP, although my former Dr wanted me to reset it at 4 - 20 (I didn't). I was getting AHI around 2. The pressure changed from 7 to 13 each night.

My new Dr asked to set the machine at 8 - 12. Because I was not much time at 7 he said to put the minimum at 8; and he added I didn't need the high pressure more than 12 because in the case of a leak the pressure will goes high and could produce acid reflux then more apneas as the consequence of something in the throat closing to protect from the acid. I'm not a Dr I explain it as I understood.

The new narrower pressure setting brought my AHI at less than 1.5 mostly around 1 and even a lower off 0.2. The pressure each night now is going only to 9.5 or 10 and very rare to 11. I imagine this new Dr knows something about setting pressures.

[Jettagram]

I'm still playing with my pressures. My sleep doc said he would set straight CPAP at 10, but my machine was set for 4 - 20. I was doing okay with AI's but my AHI was more than 5. I also felt I wasn't getting enough air at that low pressure.

I got some good advice from members on the forum to start narrowing the pressure range, so I now have min 8, max 15. My AHI is trending down, but I may need to raise the minimum pressure more.

Thanks to all on the forum! I am learning so much and doing well with my therapy thanks to your help and support.

[Kevin G.]

My setting is 4 - 12 and is much prefered to my CPAP pressure of 8.

It was suggested that lowering the upper limit would help with central apneas. The S9 performs a test for the existance of a central apnea and when this occurs does not raise the pressure further.

[leonardlake]

Here is the graph from Encore Pro Analyzer that enabled me to set my optimum pressure range. I set my Auto pressure min to 8.5 and max to 10.0.

[DreamOn]

My new Dr asked to set the machine at 8 - 12. Because I was not much time at 7 he said to put the minimum at 8; and he added I didn't need the high pressure more than 12 because in the case of a leak the pressure will goes high and could produce acid reflux then more apneas as the consequence of something in the throat closing to protect from the acid. I'm not a Dr I explain it as I understood.

Your new doctor sounds like a good one! That advice makes a lot of sense to me, and you're getting great results!

[robysue]

I was very unsure about whether to choose 2 or 3--4. Decided to go with 3-4 since that describes the full range of pressures in my Auto BiPAP settings.

Min EPAP = 4, Max IPAP = 8.

In reality this forces

4 <= EPAP <= 6
6 <= IPAP <= 8

Which is why I was tempted to say "2".


90% pressure levels are consistently around 8/5. Yeah, I know that a lot of folks around here would suggest bumping up that max IPAP. But I just don't tolerate 9cm of pressure very well and in my current range, the AHI is always below 5.0, almost always below 4.0, and is less than 2.5 for at least 75% of the time. Long term AHI since Jan. 1 is around 1.8.