SleepyHead - Leak vs Total Leak

[grillhead]

I posted this earlier but now it's deleted? Anyways, in SleepyHead, what is the difference between the leak line and the total leak line?

[Pugsy]

Respironics PR S1 machines only.
Total leak line, if you are seeing dual leak lines in SH, is the mask expected vent rate at your pressure plus any excess leak. This would be the top line if you are seeing dual leak lines.

Not everyone using SleepyHead will see 2 lines....I didn't for a long time...I only had the top line which is total leak line.

The bottom leak line (if you have 2 lines) is the excess leak only line. This would be similar to what a ResMed machine report would look like since it only reports excess leak.

Excess leak only reporting is difficult with APAP mode because vent rate varies with every little variance in pressure.
Hard to calculate.

[grillhead]

Hmmm... so which line should I concentrate on more to tell how bad my leaks are?

[Pugsy]

Doesn't matter which line you concentrate on as long as you know where large leak territory is for each way of reporting.

Respironics never tells us where their large leak territory begins. Resmed says 24 L/min for excess leak reporting but Respironics never tells us a set number one way or the other.
From my own past experience using Encore reporting (which will flag Large leak) I never got a large leak flag until I hit 90 L/min total leak. I have hit 85 L/min and not get a large leak flag.
I have seen a handful of Encore reports with a large leak flag at 75 L/min when reporting total leak.

You would need to use Encore software and hit large leak to find out exactly where your large leak line is.

Generally I just tell people if their total leak max is less than 75 L/min then they are probably not hitting large leak territory when using total leak reporting.

I can't give you a number to follow when looking at the excess leak line because Respironics doesn't ever tell us what amount of excess leak constitutes "large leak".