kebsa wrote:i have complex sleep disorderd breathing and a big issue with centrals- i have tried both the resmed and the respironics machines you mention. I tried the respironics first and no matter what changes they tried i had an AHI that ranged from 94 to 104 even though i did feel a bit better than without a machine. I was beginning to think that that was the best we would be able to do and then i was switched to the Resmed and my AHI is 0.2 and AI is 0! Despite both machines being aimed at dealing with the same problems and sounding like they deal with it in a similar way i can say that they feel very different indeed from my point of view- when i was talking to the DME about it she said that they found some people did better with one and some the other, very few get similar results with both machines which i find very interesting.
kebsa, I've put in bold red a couple of things in your post that make me be not surprised at all that you get better results with the ResMed ASV than you did with the Respironics SV -- for
your particular type of sleep disordered breathing.
As I understand it (limited understanding, of course) the ResMed ASV was designed
primarily to treat central sleep apneas. Particularly to deal with the centrals that associated with Cheyne-Stokes respiration in CHF (Congestive Heart Failure) patients. It is most likely the champ at dealing with
significant centrals in general.
Both machines (ResMed ASV and Respironics Bi-PAP Auto SV) are not aimed at dealing with exactly the same problems, imho. The ResMed machine is aimed
primarily at treating centrals. The Respironics machine is aimed at primarily (imho) treating obstructive apneas and handling centrals as a secondary goal. There's a difference, in my mind, as to the "main" treatment aim of those two machines. But I may not be understanding them well.
I think there are probably considerable differences in the way those two machines are designed to deal with centrals. So, again, I'm not surprised that the machine, which has as its
primary design emphasis, treating
centrals is the machine that you get good results from -- since you said central apneas were a very big part of your diagnosis.
Sounds to me like you already have the right machine for your particular type of sleep breathing disorder, kebsa. Hope all keeps going better and better for you. You certainly have a lot on your plate to deal with besides SDB.
I was glad to see -SWS, whom I consider to be, by far, the most knowledgeable person on this board about how all these machines work and what they are designed to best treat (insofar as anyone who is not directly involved in the actual design at the companies can be) bring his carefully considered thoughts into this thread.