CPAP pressure relief and breathing behavior

Are their any published technical papers on CPAP pressure relief during exhale and breathing behavior?

I am wondering whether it enhances breathing because with the lower pressure the lungs might expel more air. Or perhaps the brain subconsciously adopts some type of behavior with the pressure relief which promotes more regular breathing.

Also, since your maximum pressure is no longer your pressure set point plus the deltaP to expel air, your maximum pressure is only the set pressure.

The impact may go beyond simply ease of exhalation.

I am looking for published papers on this.

sleepy1235 wrote:Are their any published technical papers on CPAP pressure relief during exhale and breathing behavior?

I am wondering whether it enhances breathing because with the lower pressure the lungs might expel more air. Or perhaps the brain subconsciously adopts some type of behavior with the pressure relief which promotes more regular breathing.

Also, since your maximum pressure is no longer your pressure set point plus the deltaP to expel air, your maximum pressure is only the set pressure.

The impact may go beyond simply ease of exhalation.

I am looking for published papers on this.

Good luck!
You think these manufacturers are going to publish papers on the possibilities that their exhale relief technologies may be ADVERSE to this therapy?

You can go to their websites and read what the "virtues" of exhale relief are with their machines and the users' therapy.
Know of any sleep labs that use exhale relief when they test the patients?
This is a subject that's been discussed here many times and it's known that the exhale relief either drop pressures by a fixed amount (EPR technology) or by an amount relative to the user's exhale effort (Flex technology). And, since SOME people have apneas at the point where they reach the end of their exhale effort and the beginning of their inhale effort, the different technologies can make a difference if the pressure drops below that which they need to keep their airways open.

When YOU find those "published papers", please provide links to them here. Personally, I'm not going to spend my time looking.


Den

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i think his time would be better spent looking at some youtube training videos explaining the use of bi-level machines by respiratory therapists, what they use them for, and how they figure the pressures for the conditions they're treating.

but, I don't expect him to listen to me

This paper talks about pressure relief and tidal volume.

http://www.montanasleepsociety.org/Docu ... nd%202.pdf

It seems that the EPRs available on some machines aren't large enough in magnitude to provide improvement for tidal volume.

Search all you want, but, pressure relief is for comfort.....If a person cannot use their CPAP because it is uncomfortable to breath/exhale...the pressure relief (EPR) will help them with their therapy.

LSAT wrote:Search all you want, but, pressure relief is for comfort.....

True and it's also for while you are awake only.

It's a "mind game". Unless you have other problems that make breathing difficult, when you fall asleep and the autonomous nervous system takes over the breathing function, you easily breathe out against the straight pressure.

Wulfman... wrote:Know of any sleep labs that use exhale relief when they test the patients?

I just had my titration done and they turned it on. It worked differently from my Resmed machine: Theirs reduced the pressure only when breathing out, while my ResMed increases the pressure only while breathing in.

FlyingMoose wrote:It worked differently from my Resmed machine: Theirs reduced the pressure only when breathing out, while my ResMed increases the pressure only while breathing in.

FlyingMoose wrote: while my ResMed increases the pressure only while breathing in.

this is correct, expiratory pressure relief is a bit of a misnomer.

all one has to do is look at the sharkfin mask pressure trace to see that you're correct

palerider wrote:all one has to do is look at the sharkfin mask pressure trace

Is that shark you are referring to swimming west or east?

ChicagoGranny wrote:

palerider wrote:all one has to do is look at the sharkfin mask pressure trace

Is that shark you are referring to swimming west or east?

west!

Northern hemisphere or southern hemisphere?