What is the Resscan software going to tell me?

[Swim_Bike_Run]

I am supposed to get my card reader on Monday.....I am still learning terms, etc. I am on day 10 of the CPAP therapy. I do know how to pull up my AHI, HI, leak , etc. from my machine, but what can I expect to gain from the card reader and resscan? I also bought a separate mask - Softgel just to get a different one to try. Can I do anything between now and when I get the card reader to better understand the results?

Thanks in advance and HaPpY NeW YeAr.

Brian

[cflame1]

timing of when things happen is a big one. You can tell if a leak caused an event, etc.

[ozij]

It can tell you what happened when, and you can see interesting correlations. It won't tell you what caused what,unless the one happend clearly befor the other.

[Rebecca R]

Your LCD screen reports medians which isn't necessarily so useful. It can make it look like the therapy is more effective than it is.

I discovered periods of huge leaks coinciding with huge clusters of apneas--39 per hour at some points-- and the lcd screen was reporting fairly acceptable numbers all along. I knew I had to solve the leaks that I had no idea were occurring.

I had been removing my mask in my sleep and didn't know why. I discovered I was taking it off either during a leak or a cluster of apneas which must have put me into survival mode... I'm not taking my mask off in my sleep anymore.

r

[DreamOn]

Swim_Bike_Run,

Here's a screenshot of one of the ResScan screens:

.

The software will show you the actual occurences, including what time an apnea or hypopnea occurred and how long the apnea lasted. On the "Events" line, the blue marks are hypopneas and the red blip is an apnea. This apnea lasted 18 seconds. (Some of the hypopneas are clustered close together and don't show separately unless you set a smaller time frame.) It'll show you the leak rate line (flat on this example, as there are no measurable leaks except when the mask was removed at the end of the session), so you can see if leaks may coordinate with events. This example is from an Elite II, which is just straight pressure, but since you're using an Auto machine, yours will show the variations in pressure throughout the night. The tiny squiggly lines on this pressure graph are because EPR (expiratory pressure relief) of 2 was used, which decreased the pressure on each exhale that much.

In this example, the set pressure was 6.0, EPR was 2.0, median pressure was 4.6, AHI was 1.7, HI was 1.6, AI was .1, and zero leaks. There were 13 hypopneas and 1 apnea in 7 hours 23 minutes.

I find it helpful to see when event clusters occur and what time of night/morning events happen most often. The vertical blue-green lines are the times that the therapy session began and ended. In this example, events were clustered in the second half of the night, but that isn't always the case.

I hope that information helps!

~ DreamOn

[roster]

Your LCD screen reports medians which isn't necessarily so useful. It can make it look like the therapy is more effective than it is.

I discovered periods of huge leaks coinciding with huge clusters of apneas--39 per hour at some points-- and the lcd screen was reporting fairly acceptable numbers all along. I knew I had to solve the leaks that I had no idea were occurring.

......

Good point Rebecca. Excellent example of the great advantage of the software over the display.