Pugsy wrote:jnk... wrote:Can a minimum delta be specified in the Respironics autobilevel now?
What's a delta?
If you mean minimum PS...yes...with the 760 model there are separate settings for minimum PS and maximum PS and we are no longer tied to the default 2 cm minimum default PS.
Thanks, Pugsy!
With that change, then, I now have no reservations concerning anyone's use of that brand's autobilevels, since those machines, theoretically anyway, could be set up just as effectively as a ResMed for anyone now, I would think.
Previously, for some with obesity-hypoventilation issues, for example, a 2-cm-hardwired-minimum PS was bogus bilevel, IMO, back in those days. Technically, that brand's autobilevels didn't really have the ability to meet the AASM definition of dependably delivering a bilevel-pressure Rx (PS of 4 cm or higher).
Personally, when I tried Respironics' autobilevel some five years ago, it didn't follow my breathing very well, so the ResMed autobilevel turned out to be what was best for me. I believe, on the other hand, however, that others have found the opposite to be true for them--Respironics followed their breathing better than ResMed.
So my opinion (as nothing but an activist-leaning patient) is that ideally a patient should be allowed a few weeks with each autobilevel machine (provided, of course, that each machine was set up properly for that patient's particular issue[s]) before the patient chose which one was more effective and more comfortable for him or her.
Sadly though, little, if anything, in the DME-RT world is ideal these days--whether dealing with patients OR explaining differences in machine approaches to docs--none of whom seem to want to have to learn enough to be able to customize an Rx according to a particular technical approach by a manufacturer. And no RT wants to be responsible for assuming what the doc would want, even if (BIG IF) the DME-RT understood the differences between the manufacturers' approaches in their autobilevels. In my opinion, all of that makes the prescribing, and dispensing, of autobilevels problematic in the system as it now stands.
So, getting back to OP's question, there is no disadvantage to an autobilevel
machine, provided you are willing to develop the expertise yourself (with the support of fellow patients here, of course) on how to optimize its settings for yourself--since few docs and RTs have the know-how, the desire, or the time to work together with each other, or with you, to help you do that.
In my opinion. And I do have some doozies. The above being one of them.