Resmed Spirit LCD readouts???

Jan in Colo. · Post by **Jan in Colo.** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 7:47 am

First night with an autopap, the Resmed Spirit. My sleep study had said I needed a pressure of 9 cfm so I set the Spirit to 7cfm/15cfm. My foolish thinking was that I had left the top number pretty high up there, but since I was experimenting, that would be a good thing.

Well, here's my readout in the morning.

Leaks 0.42 L/s........does that mean Liters per SECOND? Is that a lot?
AI......1.0
HI......4.2
AHI 5.2

And here's the clicker......SETTING..15 FIFTEEN! YIKES!

What does that mean? Does that mean that I happened to have been at 15 cfm at the moment I woke up to the alarm and stopped the machine?

Does that mean I spent the majority of the night at FIFTEEN ???? I can't find anywhere in the manual where it addresses what that figure actually means.

I'm thinking an AHI of 5.2, with that mostly hypopneas, is pretty acceptable.

I don't have software for this machine yet, these are just the quickie LCD readings you get from the machine itself.

But geez, what a shocker!

Jan in Colo.

Jan in Colo. · Post by **Jan in Colo.** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 7:56 am

Oh, and NOW what do I do? I'm assuming I should raise that higher number from fifteen to, I don't know, 18 or something?

I feel like I've gone to the county fair and done that sledgehammer game and hit the bell at the top with my first swing!

Jan in Colo.

Jan in Colo. · Post by **Jan in Colo.** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 7:56 am

Oh, and NOW what do I do? I'm assuming I should raise that higher number from fifteen to, I don't know, 18 or something?

I feel like I've gone to the county fair and done that sledgehammer game and hit the bell at the top with my first swing!

Jan in Colo.

mikemoran · Post by **mikemoran** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 9:31 am

Okay calm down and take a deep breath, all is well. 15 is the highest pressure it reached at some point during the night. Anything less than .5 l/s is considered a good seal so you did not have too much leaking. But your pressure could have spiked if you has a mouth leak. A 5 AHI is considered okay.

In regards to yoru settlings these are the things to consider:
Were you able to go to sleep comfortably?
Do you feel pretty good today?

Answer yes to these and you should leave your settings alone. How you feel is the true test and getting stressed about numbers isn't a good thing.

Personally I leave my Spirit at 6-20 because I need more airflow than 4 to feel like I am not suffocating. I leave the top end open as the algorythmn seems to work for me and does the job. Also I have never had any runaway pressure problems. My original sleep lab titration was 11, generally my highest runs at 10 but have spiked to 13 on occasion. AHi fluctuates between 2.5 and 6.

Jan in Colo. · Post by **Jan in Colo.** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 12:20 pm

Okay, Mike, then I should leave the numbers alone. I slept great and didn't wake up once. I FEEL great, whereas yesterday with the old machine and old setting of 9 cfm, I felt like a truck had hit me all day long. LOTS of aches and pains in every fiber of my body for some reason (I'm prone to that, but hadn't had it happen in a long time, because normally the CPAP left me feeling pretty good).

But I feel great today....think I'm liking this autopap stuff. I just don't understand it, that's all, lol.

Well I'll get my three new autopaps in (from that little shopping therapy I had a few days ago), try them all out and decided what software to buy first, so I'll know exactly when and how LONG I stayed at these various pressures.......AND, most likely freak out again! LOL, LOL.

Jan in Colo.

dsm · Post by **dsm** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 1:46 pm

Jan,

Last night my ResMed Spirt rose to the max of 16 - on checking it in AutoScan I noticed a pattern where just as I am about to go to sleep, and if on my back, pressue in the machine goes close to maximum setting then settles back. At 4:30am when I checked it was back to 13.1 (as it was most of the night when I look ed all the data).

The Autoscan software allows me to download the nights data (up to 365 nights), and to see hour-by-hour what was happening.

Tonight I will post on my Cpap Research website, some screen grabs showing the above pattern & data.

My best advice (and RG's advice too) to anyone of us who meddle with out AUTOs is to set them in a narrow range 1 or 2 cms below & above our titration pressure (mine is 15 so my AUTO range is 13-16). My auto usually spends most of the night at av of 13.4.

But, there are known issues where these units keep ramping up to max (runaway pressure) so the best advice to anyone is *DON'T* set the upper to maximum. In some respects this is why there are concerns in medical circles at people fiddling with their machines. Commonsense must always be applied.

Cheers

DSM

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mikemoran · Post by **mikemoran** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 2:16 pm

Jan,

You now have heard from the two schools of thought. The narrow rangers and us wide open autoPAPers. I think even RG would agree the most importnat thing is how you feel. The reason I don't go real narrow on the low end is I think it defeats the prupose of having an auto. If I kept my low end pressure up high I would lose the comfort of being at a lower pressure until I needed it.

It also matters which machine and which algorythmn it supports. The Spirit is very responsive which is another reason I have not felt the need to increase low end pressure. Like everything we all have different opinions and you should play with it as you see fit.

chrisp · Post by **chrisp** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 3:15 pm

Raising the lower pressure closer to 9 should lower the HI .

Jan in Colo. · Post by **Jan in Colo.** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 4:04 pm

Thanks for the advice, you low-range people, lol! But it is set to 7 cfm as the low range and my prescription is for 9...isn't that already pretty close? You are thinking I should put it at 8 or 9?

And Mike, it does make sense I probably mouth breathed or something to make it spike that high....I need the software to see if it was a brief experience or something more significant....

Thanks, everyone, I'm still listening...

Jan in Colo.

dsm · Post by **dsm** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 5:03 pm

[quote="Jan in Colo."]Thanks for the advice, you low-range people, lol! But it is set to 7 cfm as the low range and my prescription is for 9...isn't that already pretty close? You are thinking I should put it at 8 or 9?

And Mike, it does make sense I probably mouth breathed or something to make it spike that high....I need the software to see if it was a brief experience or something more significant....

Thanks, everyone, I'm still listening...

Jan in Colo.

jdschooler · Post by **jdschooler** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 6:31 pm

I find it easier to exhale with a higher low setting like 8 or 9 as previously mentioned...now my HI is usually 1 or 2. As far as the leak reading...that's not too bad but can get alot better with a good comfortable mask that don't leak much...I have an activa and rarely leak more than .16 otherwise the over AHI of 5 or so isn't bad again I am usually down around 3 or so unless I have too much alcohol on board.

mikemoran · Post by **mikemoran** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 6:56 pm

dsm wrote:
Jan in Colo. wrote:AUTOS don't really 'spike' - they apply very slow adjustments in pressure over time 'pressure slow roaming' might be a better description.

True during normal performance an auto does not spike it will increase pressure in accordance with its algorythmn. However there is an instance were the presure reading will spike with mouth breathing. The spirit reads the pressure at the machine. If you are mouth breathing it starts to compensate for the leak by increasing airflow with is exiting out your mouth. when you close your mouth you do create some back pressure which will be read as a higher pressure. This will record higher on the LCD screen. Only if you have the software so you can see the leak data can you tell if the highest pressure recorded was due to an event or just stopping a mouth leak.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 8:17 pm

mikemoran wrote:
dsm wrote:
Jan in Colo. wrote:AUTOS don't really 'spike' - they apply very slow adjustments in pressure over time 'pressure slow roaming' might be a better description.
True during normal performance an auto does not spike it will increase pressure in accordance with its algorythmn. However there is an instance were the presure reading will spike with mouth breathing. The spirit reads the pressure at the machine. If you are mouth breathing it starts to compensate for the leak by increasing airflow with is exiting out your mouth. when you close your mouth you do create some back pressure which will be read as a higher pressure. This will record higher on the LCD screen. Only if you have the software so you can see the leak data can you tell if the highest pressure recorded was due to an event or just stopping a mouth leak.