Can anyone help me understand this?

Got the results from my latest sleep study, but I don't really understand a lot of it. I'm pasting below the part that I think is relevant, and am hoping someone out there is willing and able to help me interpret it. My main question is this: what pressures should my machine be set at?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

III. PHYSICIAN INTERPRETATION
A. [E0601] titrated 4-8 cm for moderately severe OSA and moderately heavy snoring. At 8 cm,
there was difficulty tolerating continuous, expiratory pressures. [E0470] trialed 8/4 cm
which improved tolerance and enabled sleep re-initiation. Final titrated pressure was 17/13
cm which included supine REM with 0.0 AHI, no hypoxia, and no snoring.
B. No significant total night periodic limb movements of sleep noted.
C. There was 96.5% sleep efficiency with 33.6% SWS and 13.9% REM sleep (normal 20-25%
each). REM latency delayed 262.0 min. Possible medication effect.
D. No parasomnia-type behavior or episodes observed during this study.
E. FP Pilairo Q standard size nasal pillows mask worn and tolerated.
F. [E0601] poorly tolerated given high pressures to treat moderately severe [G47.33].
G. [E0470] efficacious and well-tolerated. 17/13 cm appears sufficient for initiation of therapy.
H. Follow-up downloads [94660] advised to monitor compliance and efficacy.

What is the full name/model of your machine?

Looks like you are being prescribed a bilevel machine because of the higher pressures needed to prevent your airway from collapsing and the fact that you started having problems with the pressure at relatively low pressures.

and these would be the probable settings

17/13 cm appears sufficient for initiation of therapy.

They started you out lower but as they increased the pressures you started having issues at 8 cm and you needed more pressure so they changed you over to bilevel pressures and you did better and they finally got to where you were using 17 for inhale and 13 for exhale without problems and those pressures seemed to hold the airway open well enough.

A key item in the report is:

Final titrated pressure was 17/13 cm which included supine REM with 0.0 AHI, no hypoxia, and no snoring.

Translated into English - your apnea was completely treated at this pressure and with the mask provided.
That's a really good start.
Welcome to the forum.

Julie wrote:What is the full name/model of your machine?

The report does not specify what machine was used for the test, only that I "wore the FP Pilairo Q standard size nasal pillows
mask".

I have been using CPAP therapy at home for several years. I use ResMed Autoset II with a TAP PAP mask. I believe the pressure on my machine is set in the 12-20 range, although I'd have to check for sure and I'm at work right now. My doctor didn't think this was effective any longer, hence the new sleep study. (Also didn't hurt that I've met my out of pocket maximum for the year!)

I'm confused by the different types of machines: BiPap, VPap, etc. Are you saying that I will need a new machine, or will the machine I currently have do what I need, with adjustment?

BiPap and VPap are just trademark names for the bilevel machines that ResMed (VPAP) and Respironcis (BiPap) machines.
These are called bilevel machines because they have the ability to set the inhale and exhale pressure separately. They also will go to 25 cm where the normal cpap/apap machines can only go to 20.

Your current S8 AutoSet can't really be set to what the new settings are but it could be set to be fairly close if one utilizes the EPR feature.

17/13 is 17 inhale and 13 exhale with a difference of 4 cm and that difference is called pressure support.
Your AutoSet could be set for 17 inhale and by using 3 EPR (that's a 3 cm reduction) you could have a 14 cm exhale pressure. Might be close enough to get the job done but I suspect that they will probably suggest a new machine that does the real bilevel thing. Using EPR gets close but it still isn't exactly the same.

Using the AutoSet the maximum pressure support is 3 cm....4 cm PS isn't hugely different but it is different.
Bilevel machines allow for greater variations in pressure support depending on need.
So you could probably get very close with your existing machine but not quite and there are other advantages to getting a new/latest model machine that will do the real bilevel pressures for you.
More comprehensive data...quieter...easy to obtain and use software along with a SD card instead of the smart cards for data storage.

Wow, that is great information, Pugsy! Thank you so much for taking the time to explain it all to me. I really appreciate having a greater understanding of what's going on.