Questions about my cpap machine and numbers

I have a Phillips respironics remstar and I have some questions

In the info menu there is an option for ahi. If I click on it it says last 7 days 2.8 30 day average 3.0. What does these numbers mean?

Periodic breathing is 0 last 7 days and average. What does this mean?

90% pleasure 7 day avg 9.7 and 30 day average 9.7. What does this mean?

Alson when I click on the therapy button it says 4.0 cm h20 what does that mean?

Also is the remstar auto A flex. The cpap that automatically adjusts?

Thanks for your help.

Yes, it has 2 modes of operation...straight cpap mode and apap mode where the pressures automatically adjust based on what the machine senses.

The 7/30 day AHI is a simple average of the AHI... for the last 7s day and for the last 30 days.
Average number of events per hour for time use. All events lumped into one figure.

90% pressure is just a number that means you were either at OR below that pressure for 90% of the time
for same time frame...last 7 days or 30 days.

the % number for large leak...useless number...just the percent of the time that you were in large leak.

Periodic breathing %...just the percentage of time that you had any periodic breathing. Less or zero is what we want to see.

Check out SleepyHead in my signature...it will work with your machine and really give you much more details than you can get on the LCD screen. Check out the other link for PR S1 Software options to see some examples.

BTW your AHI for the 7/30 day time frame is quite good...we strive for less than 5.

Obviously I will ask my dr but if ahi is so low does that mean I don't need cpap?

benalexe wrote:Obviously I will ask my dr but if ahi is so low does that mean I don't need cpap?

Gosh, no...it just means that when you are using the machine your AHI is low and the machine is doing its job very well..

Kinda like a diabetic using insulin...blood sugar is normal when using insulin...doesn't mean they don't need it or aren't diabetic any more...just means that the insulin is doing its job.

Too bad. I thought with the machine at 4.0 and low ahi maybe I did not need it. Wishful thinking

Did you have a formal sleep study? What was the AHI for the sleep study?
4 cm is a very low pressure. It is as low as the machine will go. It does offer therapy value though.
Are you using the machine to try to self diagnose and treat?

I think what's happened is that either your doctor or supplier (DME) has not set your prescribed pressures into your machine - the ones that are at or very close to what the doctor wants the machine to 'use' for your therapy.... 4 and 20 are the defaults of the machine, the lowest and highest possible pressure settings, but in fact the great majority of us are prescribed pressures somewhere in between and either the DME or ourselves set the machines to e.g.... for a prescribed pressure of 10, settings of 8 and 12 in Apap, or 10 in Cpap mode. No one can actually breathe at 4 and 20 is much higher than most of us need, and in fact usually have different types of machines if 20 is prescribed... you really need to go to the lightbulb at the top of the page here and start reading, learning all about your OSA and equipment and how to interpret numbers, etc. so you can help yourself intelligently with your therapy.

I had two sleep studies a while back. Maybe 2 years ago. Being that the machine indicates that I have a very low ahi maybe 4.0 is all i needs? For some reason I thought my machine adjusts itself. I recently sent in my card to the dme for analysis. Maybe they can tell me something.

You can see your reports yourself if you want to.
Checkout my signature line for your options and information on using SleepyHead.
What you are seeing may be the starting point of 4 cm and your 90% pressure on the LCD screen is showing 9.7 cm....means the machine starts at 4 but doesn't stay at 4...it has gone up to around 10 cm at times.

So your machine may start at 4 cm and if you are comfortable with that pressure that is fine but it definitely doesn't stay at 4 cm all night and it does raise the pressure to around 10 and you definitely are still going to need the machine.

90% pressure means that for 90% of the time you were at or below that number.

benalexe wrote:Too bad. I thought with the machine at 4.0 and low ahi maybe I did not need it. Wishful thinking

Most definitely wishful thinking.

As pugsy has pointed out, your AHI is low because the machine is doing its job. Without the machine, your AHI numbers would quickly return to the level they were at on your diagnostic sleep study.

The machine says 4 cm H2O when you turn it on because it has been set with min pressure = 4 cm. Your machine is clearly auto adjusting the pressure since the 90% pressure level is 9.7, that means that for 10% of the time your pressure is AT or ABOVE 9.7 cm.

As pugsy has explained, the on-board figures are 7 and 30 day moving averages. For more details on how those numbers are calculated and how a given night's numbers actually affect them, you can go to my blog Understanding how the 7-day and 30-day average AHI's are computed

Okay so I downloaded all of the software. Now I have no idea what the data means


SleepyHead v0.9.2

This is a beta software and some functionality may not work as intended yet.
Please report any bugs you find to SleepyHead's SourceForge page.
CPAP Statistics as of February 12, 2012
247 days of CPAP Data, between 12/30/10 and 2/12/12
Details Most Recent Last 7 Days Last 30 Days Last 6 months Last Year
AHI 4.03 2.75 2.15 2.47 2.63
RERA Index 0.37 0.18 0.25 0.24 0.22
Flow Limit Index 1.47 0.71 0.99 1.02 1.06
Hours per Night 02:43 04:50 04:53 04:57 04:47
Average Pressure 9.10 7.69 7.64 7.58 7.20
95% Pressure 10.70 11.10 10.80 10.80 10.80
Average Total Leaks 24.68 22.78 21.36 4.82 2.21
95% Total Leaks 28.00 30.00 29.00 29.00 29.00

Changes to Prescription Settings
First Last Days AHI Machine Mode Pr. Rel. Min Pres. Max Pres.
12/30/10 2/12/12 247 2.63 PRS1 Auto A-Flex x2 4.00 20.00
The above has a threshold which excludes day counts less than 5 from the best/worst highlighting

Machine Information
Brand Model Serial First Use Last Use
Philips Respironics System One RemStar Auto with A-Flex (550P) P0206179037CC 12/30/10 2/12/12

Can anyone tell me anything about my numbers??? See above

You have copied the data from the statistics page.
There is a glossary to help you understand the terminology.
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/s ... r_Glossary

benalexe wrote:Hours per Night 02:43 04:50 04:53 04:57 04:47

Less than 5 hours of sleep using the machine...are you sleeping without it or only getting 4 to 5 hours of sleep? and last night less than 3 hours?

benalexe wrote:AHI 4.03 2.75 2.15 2.47 2.63

Average of all the events per hour....we like to see less than 5...you have that covered.

Average pressure...just the average pressure during the night
95 % pressure...just an number where you spent 95% of the night AT OR Below that pressure.

Average leaks..just the overall average and Respironics reports total leak which includes the vent rate
95% leak...again just a number where you were AT OR Below.

Your pressure settings are 4 minimum and 20 maximum. The machine is spending the bulk of the time somewhere between...7.5 cm and probably around 12 cm. If you are comfortable with 4 cm minimum it seems to be doing a good job. If you aren't comfortable or it is a bit stifling you might want to talk to your doctor about increasing the minimum a bit.

Biggest thing shouting out here is your lack of hours using the machine.
Why? That is the thing that needs to be worked on right now. Whatever it is that is causing the short hours of sleep using the machine.

Thanks for the feedback. The low hours is because I often do rip off the mask. I also o to bed Kate and get up early.

benalexe wrote:90% pleasure 7 day avg 9.7 and 30 day average 9.7.

You obviously have some other kind of device, not a CPAP machine.

Just kidding, welcome to the board. It's "pressure", not "pleasure." That darn PRS1 machine has a lousy display, doesn't it?

Other than that, it's an excellent machine.