Aura

How do you know how exactly accurate or inaccurate your AHI reports are while using a mask considered incompatible by the manufacturers?

If sleep event detection is at risk of being wrong, then so is the corresponding data that ends up on the AHI report.

The machine makers don't test their machines with other masks for obvious reasons. They want you to buy their mask.

Follow the money, It never lies.

Cheers,

Chris

Guest,

I would be a very strange coincidence that the results with an approved mask and one of the narrow tube masks would be virtually identical without the machine reponding equally well to both masks. You also have the "how do you feel" factor. Many of us have used narrow tube interfaces with our autos with the same good results we get from our traditional masks.

I also agree with chrisp... follow the money.

Aura says to use with any brand cpap or any brand bipap. Yet Aura says not to use with autopap.

I'm confused. What is the unique money trail in the autopap case that must differ so much from the money trail for cpap or bipap? Why only disclaim against autopap?

The reason is basically that the autos are supposed to respond to flow limitations and in theory the narrow tubing of the aura may cause auto machine responses due to the tubes causing flow restrictions. But clearly some use it with autos with no problems. That isn't a guarantee for everyone.

Tom

Anonymous wrote:Aura says to use with any brand cpap or any brand bipap. Yet Aura says not to use with autopap.

I'm confused. What is the unique money trail in the autopap case that must differ so much from the money trail for cpap or bipap? Why only disclaim against autopap?

Because all cpaps and simple bipaps work the same. They all blow a constant pressure withour regard to the hose. If their mask did not work with the competitors machine, then it would not work with their own machine.

My point about the money is that the mfgr who is the most accepting of narrow tube interface compatability is the one that has sold them as their only interface for a long time.

You raise a very important point, Guest --

How do you know how exactly accurate or inaccurate your AHI reports are while using a mask considered incompatible by the manufacturers?

If sleep event detection is at risk of being wrong, then so is the corresponding data that ends up on the AHI report.

Although my AHI has happened to stay around 1.x or 2.x, perhaps hitting 3.x on a very few scattered nights, you're absolutely right that whatever the AHI is (and anything about the data) depends on how the machine is able to detect events in the first place. If a mask affects the detection, then all bets are off. Actually what I go by when using various masks with autopaps is how I feel each morning.

That might be a riskier judgement for some patients to make who don't feel all that great anyway - they might not be able to tell if they were getting good, better, bad, worse results from a machine that was getting confused and was not able to detect events properly or respond to them properly because of a particular mask/machine/patient combo.

Most message board posters seem to have no trouble with the mix/match approach, or with narrow diameter hoses and autopaps, but there's no way to know if that's really the case for "most patients" in general...or actually even for the posters who keep ignoring the manufacturers' caveat. I'll keep ignoring it, though, as long as I'm getting good results, subjectively speaking.

The reason is basically that the autos are supposed to respond to flow limitations and in theory the narrow tubing of the aura may cause auto machine responses due to the tubes causing flow restrictions.

That makes a lot sense.

Yet, I wonder if there isn't another reason too: I noticed a post somewhere that said "mask X now approved for titration". And that set me thinking: Autos are somtimes used for titration, and the their pressure results are then carried over to other machines and other masks. A non standaradized mask on an auto would bias the pressure measurments, and skew the results for another machine. So, a "9" on an auto with one kind of mask may not be the equivalent of a "9" with another mask on a simple CPAP. Maybe as long as you're using a mask on your own auto, the bias doesn't matter. As long as you're feeling well, you're getting what you need, regardless of the pressure numbers reported by the machine.

Has any of you experienced mask collectors run into a mask that was "approved for auto use, but not for titration"?