AirSense 10 Elite: Nasal vs Pillows??

The ResMed AirSense 10 Elite has Mask settings for Full Face / Nasal / Pillows.
Just curious - what's the difference in these settings??

The only thing I could find was in the clinical guide:
If you're using pillows and have a pressure less than 7, the AutoStart might not work.

Is that all??
Ed

Call them up and ask them.
I would do it but I am going out the door right now and don't have time.


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Years ago the mask setting choice was used in leak calculation to determine excess leak but I can't find anything like that now so I don't know if it has changed or not.
It may have something to do with the resistance in each mask but I can't find anything that addresses the need for mask type selection on anything remotely current.

I usually set the machine to match the mask.
Outside of the autostart, I cannot tell the difference.

EdNerd wrote:The ResMed AirSense 10 Elite has Mask settings for Full Face / Nasal / Pillows.
Just curious - what's the difference in these settings??

The only thing I could find was in the clinical guide:
If you're using pillows and have a pressure less than 7, the AutoStart might not work.

Is that all??
Ed

Because the sensor is within the device and not in the mask, the device must calculate the predicted pressure at the mask based on the flow measurements at a different point in the system. The pressure at two points varies with the flow. For turbulent flow, this can be calculated by Flow (q) = constant√(p1 − p2).3 The length and diameter of the tubing and mask characteristics affect the constant value, and so the technician must input the mask and tube type for the microprocessor to make the correct calculations.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4629962/ (I haven't gotten around to reading the referenced patents to see if there's more info)

Since ResMed cpaps are designed to normalize leak data for mask venting, the vent rate of various style masks needs to be taken into account in your sleep data. I don't have the reference at hand, but I've seen a table of the characteristic vent rates of various kinds of ResMed masks, and they are different. So that's at least part of the story. Don't know what else they're doing based on the mask type, though.

RogerSC wrote:Since ResMed cpaps are designed to normalize leak data for mask venting, the vent rate of various style masks needs to be taken into account in your sleep data. I don't have the reference at hand, but I've seen a table of the characteristic vent rates of various kinds of ResMed masks, and they are different. So that's at least part of the story. Don't know what else they're doing based on the mask type, though.

they're more similar than they are different, and there are larger variations in single classes of masks than there are between classes.

it's not the vent rate, it's the resistance, which better matches between full face, nasal, and pillow.