Is an avegare of 6 AHI good enough?

[tonytexas]

I have been using the PR One for about 7 months now and my 30 days average AHI always falls between 5 and 7.
I am always in awe when I read in this forum that people can achieve AHI in the decimal points range and even 0.
Is an average of AHI 6 good enough? or should I aim for a better therapy result? I mean I sometime still find myself dozing off in late afternoon or early evening and I begin to wonder if my therapy is not maximized.

Any comments or advice would be appreciated. Thanks

[rested gal]

Hi Tony,

What pressure was prescribed for you from your sleep study?

Are you using your PR System One autopap in Auto mode (a minimum/maximum pressure range) or in CPAP mode (one single pressure?)
If "auto" mode, what range of pressure is your PR System One Autopap set for?

What leak rate have you been seeing on your most recent weekly data from the machine?

I looked back through your previous posts to see if I could find what pressure you're using:

viewtopic.php?p=412587#p412587

I live in Houston with high humidity and since I am on low pressure (6.5), i don't really use the humidifier. But when I caught a flu last week, I noticed that the a setting of 2 on the humidifier helped my congestion and soothed the sore throat and nose tremendously.

Back to your current post... I'd check first to see if leaks are well under control. If the leak rate is low, and I were using the PR System One machine in CPAP mode at a single pressure of 6.5, I'd raise the single pressure to 8 or 9. If I were using that machine in auto mode, I'd set the minimum pressure at 7 or 8 and the maximum pressure at 15. But I'm not a doctor. That's just what I'd do "if it were me."

I'd use heated humidification every night, even if I set the heat adjustment as low as possible.

[dtsm]

You could also either rent or purchase a pulse oximeter to measure oxygen saturation levels. My sleep doctor also said the flatter the oxygen level line on the graph, the better. In other words, a level 95% straight line is better than one that jumps back and forth from say 90-95-90-95 range.

http://www.southeasternmedical.com says a wide variety at different price points, any of them will do as long as it comes with data/downloadable software to read/print reports. They offer competitive prices and ship quickly.

I've recently switched over to straight cpap and my Ai numbers have gotten much better. My AHI also much better last few days. My leak line is still far from where I'd like it to be, although it falls within 'acceptable leak ranges'. But my experiences are only 3 months of therapy

Hope you feel better.

[ronster2]

I have been using the PR One for about 7 months now and my 30 days average AHI always falls between 5 and 7.
I am always in awe when I read in this forum that people can achieve AHI in the decimal points range and even 0.
Is an average of AHI 6 good enough? or should I aim for a better therapy result? I mean I sometime still find myself dozing off in late afternoon or early evening and I begin to wonder if my therapy is not maximized.

Any comments or advice would be appreciated. Thanks

I don't have the Auto, but I do have the PR Sytem One Pro C-Flex. My prescribed pressure was 9.0 cm and I, like yourself, was in the 4 to 6 AHI range. I bumped my pressure to 10.5 and now have constantly low AHI's of 0.X to 1.5. Maybe you could look at this for yourself.

Ronster

[tonytexas]

Thank you all for the comments.

I was using the PR system One Auto and was set at Aflex=2 and min 5 and max 12. My 90% pressure ranges from 5.5 to about 7.5 and my last 30 day average is 6.7. The machine never detected any leakages, the reading for the 7 day average and 30 average are always 0. However, I did play around the min and max pressure setting and even set at as high as 8-15 but my AHI remains 5 to 7. Since I don't have the Encore 2.2, its hard to figure out what really happens and whether AI or HI is more of the culprit.

Anyway, I just got my S9 a few weeks ago and my AHI has improved drastically to about 2-3 for the last 2 weeks. I still feel the same and am still tired at end of the day so I now wonder if the algorithm to calculate the AI and HI in both machines are very much different. I don't have rescan 3.10 and would appreciate if anyone could let me know how to get a copy.

DTSM - Thanks for the suggestion, I will try to get an oxymeter and see what my O2 level is.

Again, Thanks for all the input.

Tony

[dtsm]

Thank you all for the comments.
I don't have rescan 3.10 and would appreciate if anyone could let me know how to get a copy.
DTSM - Thanks for the suggestion, I will try to get an oxymeter and see what my O2 level is.

Check your PM - once you download your data, post here.