How to interpret leak rate

I am trying to make sense of the leak rates reported on my machines reporting function.
Last night it reports a leak rate of 38 l/m and yet it shows a smiley face on the mask leak. Isn't 38 too high to be considered good? Also, on the resmed website is shows the leakage as 19l/min. Why are the numbers different? Is one reporting a peak leakage while the other reports an average? Is it something else that explains the difference in the numbers?

I have a resmed Aircurve10 bipap machine

You can have a small amount of excess leakage and still get a smiley face. You need to look at your data using sleepyhead software and see how much excess leakage you had.

Ed M wrote:Last night it reports a leak rate of 38 l/m and yet it shows a smiley face on the mask leak. Isn't 38 too high to be considered good?

You have to understand what unit of measure is being reported. The on screen unit of value is what is called a 95% leak number and all that means is you were at OR BELOW that number for 95% of the night. You would need to see the software leak graphs available by using software to get a better overall picture of how much time was spent over 24 L/min.

Mr Smiley doesn't get replaced by Mr Frowny for leak management until you spend 30 % or more of the night above 24 L/min. It takes a lot of large leak to get Mr Frowny to show up.

Ed M wrote: on the resmed website is shows the leakage as 19l/min. Why are the numbers different? Is one reporting a peak leakage while the other reports an average? Is it something else that explains the difference in the numbers?

Look at the data closely...one might be a "last night" data and the other might be the average over a period of time. I don't use MyAir so I don't know if it is overall average or just the most recent nightly number but it is a 95% number.

I do know that on the machine LCD screen you can change the unit from last night to last week or even last 30 days....depends on if you go deeper into the on screen data reported. Do you have the provider/clinical manual that explains all this? If not, you can request it here.
http://www.apneaboard.com/adjust-cpap-p ... tup-manual

Best to use the software to see for sure what is going on.
Don't know about the software?
https://sleep.tnet.com/equipment

This thread shows a good example of how the 95% number isn't always reporting a night where the leaks were in the toilet all night long.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=108724&p=1036669&hi ... t#p1036669
Big high 95% number but while I had about an hour total..the rest of the night the leak was within acceptable limits and I still had Mr Smiley face because I didn't spend more than 30% of the night over 24 L/min.

If you don't know about the software...
https://sleep.tnet.com/equipment