Cpap used in Sleep Lab

Does anyone know if the synchrony cpap used in a sleep lab can have condesation backup into the machine?
I am hooking up the blower to the humidifier nightly prior to pt use, can this cause condesation buildup in the blower?

I can't answer your question, SleepLab, I'm just a patient. But I do want to welcome you to the forum and am pleased and impressed that you would ask that question here. Hopefully one or more of the sleep techs or sleep pros who frequent this forum will respond shortly. Patients vastly outnumber the sleep professionals in this forum.

The sleep lab I go to also uses the Synchrony!

I doubt it, but dunno. I'm not in the health care field.

The Synchrony is manufactured by Respironics. Perhaps call their tollfree support line?

Unless the number has changed after Respironics was bought by Phillips, it used to be this:

800 345-6443

Hey sleeplab - Here is a forum I once found for sleep tech's and sleep professionals, might be useful for you : http://www.binarysleep.com/phpbb2/index.php?c=10

It strikes me that this is at least as much a question of physics as it is of clinical medicine.

If there is no difference of temperature (and therefore of dewpoint) between the blower and the humidifier, then there will be no condensation.

So, if you're using an unheated pass-over humidifier, or a heated humidifier which is not yet turned on, there is no reason for this to be a problem.

However, if your humidifier is heated, and there is no air flow, the air above the water will become warmer and more humid than the ambient air; it will diffuse in both directions from the humidifier, and it CAN condense in other, cooler parts of the circuit.

As a practical matter, much will depend on the temperature of the water, on ambient temperature, and on the time for diffusion.

Also as a practical matter, the consequences of this possibility may well depend on whether the air pathway is "closed" with respect to other parts of the interior of the machine, or whether some diversion of the airflow may be utilized in this machine to cool other components. (There was a discussion a few months ago of air movement through a telephone connection on a PB machine, I believe.) If the air pathway is closed, the likelihood of any potential problem is lessened, since once the blower is turned on, airflow will evaporate any condensate. Of course, even in this case, the possibility of microbial growth cannot be discounted, though the likelihood would appear to be remote under these circumstances. On the other hand, if warm moist air can find its way into other parts of the machine, there is more cause for concern. Perhaps the manufacturer can clarify this issue for you.

Finally, as a practical matter, some PAP machines with integrated humidifiers (e.g. by ResMed) are manufactured with a pre-flow warm-up cycle. It would therefore appear that at least these manufacturers, for these machines, are not concerned.

An excellent question! Welcome to the forum, and we all look forward to your participation!

Velbor

Velbor wrote:Finally, as a practical matter, some PAP machines with integrated humidifiers (e.g. by ResMed) are manufactured with a pre-flow warm-up cycle. It would therefore appear that at least these manufacturers, for these machines, are not concerned.

Good point, Velbor. The previous Respironcs non-M series machines with integrated humidif, also allow the heat to be turned on for a period of time -- handy for pre-warming the water before the user chooses to start the machine's blower.