How to improve bad(?) CPAP diagnosis and set up

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
TooGroggy
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How to improve bad(?) CPAP diagnosis and set up

Post by TooGroggy » Mon Apr 02, 2018 6:17 pm

Last week I learned that my brother-in-law had been diagnosed with apnea and prescribed a CPAP machine a couple of months ago. In that time, he averaged one hour, or less, of use per night and was on his way to giving up therapy.

When I looked at his machine, I was pleased to find that he had been given a Resmed Airsense 10 Autoset. So I showed him how to use an SD card to collect detailed data and view it in Sleepyhead. I also told him how much this site helped me when I first started using CPAP many years ago.

In the past week, he's been doing better. But his use of the machine is still very irregular (one hour one night, seven hours the next). I would appreciate any feedback you could provide to the following questions:

- Is there a good place to learn how to read the reports from Sleepyhead?
- He was assigned a CPAP machine based on an oximetry data collected at home with a device provided by his doctor. Based on that he was told he had an AHI of 30. How accurate is oximetry in diagnosing apnea? Should he insist on a sleep study?
- The machine was set to a pressure of 4-20. Was that sloppy work or is it a way to make up for lack of titration data?
- On nights when he used the machine, the pressure fluctuated between 7 and 10. Would it be beneficial to use a narrower pressure range?

Thank you.

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Okie bipap
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Re: How to improve bad(?) CPAP diagnosis and set up

Post by Okie bipap » Mon Apr 02, 2018 6:31 pm

A setting of 4 to 20 is the default setting for ten machine. He needs to have the settings adjusted to something more reasonable. A couple nights data from Sleepyhead will give him an ideal of where to start.

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LSAT
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Re: How to improve bad(?) CPAP diagnosis and set up

Post by LSAT » Mon Apr 02, 2018 7:47 pm

TooGroggy wrote:
Mon Apr 02, 2018 6:17 pm
Last week I learned that my brother-in-law had been diagnosed with apnea and prescribed a CPAP machine a couple of months ago. In that time, he averaged one hour, or less, of use per night and was on his way to giving up therapy.

When I looked at his machine, I was pleased to find that he had been given a Resmed Airsense 10 Autoset. So I showed him how to use an SD card to collect detailed data and view it in Sleepyhead. I also told him how much this site helped me when I first started using CPAP many years ago.

In the past week, he's been doing better. But his use of the machine is still very irregular (one hour one night, seven hours the next). I would appreciate any feedback you could provide to the following questions:

- Is there a good place to learn how to read the reports from Sleepyhead?
- He was assigned a CPAP machine based on an oximetry data collected at home with a device provided by his doctor. Based on that he was told he had an AHI of 30. How accurate is oximetry in diagnosing apnea? Should he insist on a sleep study?
- The machine was set to a pressure of 4-20. Was that sloppy work or is it a way to make up for lack of titration data?
- On nights when he used the machine, the pressure fluctuated between 7 and 10. Would it be beneficial to use a narrower pressure range?

Thank you.
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viewtopic/t88983/Pugsys-PointersSleepyH ... e4ee684588

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Ron AKA
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Re: How to improve bad(?) CPAP diagnosis and set up

Post by Ron AKA » Mon Apr 02, 2018 10:55 pm

TooGroggy wrote:
Mon Apr 02, 2018 6:17 pm
- Is there a good place to learn how to read the reports from Sleepyhead?
- On nights when he used the machine, the pressure fluctuated between 7 and 10. Would it be beneficial to use a narrower pressure range?
Here is a link to a guide on how to use SleepyHead - http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph ... SleepyHead

Normally one does set a narrower range than the default 4-20. However one should look at the SleepyHead charts first and get some advice from experienced people here.

SewTired
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Re: How to improve bad(?) CPAP diagnosis and set up

Post by SewTired » Tue Apr 03, 2018 2:55 pm

If it helps any, 4 and 5 are considered pediatric settings. Most adults can't breathe well at that. Maybe increase the bottom setting to 6 and see if that helps him sleep at night. Good that he's getting some nights now though!

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cpap626
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Re: How to improve bad(?) CPAP diagnosis and set up

Post by cpap626 » Tue Apr 03, 2018 11:40 pm

I found this youtube video helpful it shows show sleepyhead flags certain events. It also shows that sometimes some of the events that were flagged are not really events.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMkBatUVu7s

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jbgilm
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Re: How to improve bad(?) CPAP diagnosis and set up

Post by jbgilm » Wed Apr 04, 2018 3:57 am

4 is so low that you can barely detect any pressure. 20 is like a hurricane. Having the max setting so high may not hurt anything because it may never go that high. But with the minimum settng so low he may not be getting enough air.