How to interpret the Flow Rates

[Julius]

I am pretty comfortable with most parameters and settings using my Resmed S9 Autoset with climate line, but looking at my charts/graphs in SleepyHead or Rescan 4.1 I have noticed when the Flow rate/range on the graph looks wider the pressure is going up on the machine. So my question is when the Flow range looks wide, does it mean that the flow rate is slower than it should be?
I am sure some of you old timer experts can provide me with some explanation which would be appreciated.

http://www.pbase.com/jkovatch/graphs_and_charts
Thanks in advance,
Julius

[Pugsy]

Could you please post an image of what you are referring to? I can't see it in my mind when comparing it to pressure.

[Julius]

I do not know how to insert an image, could you give me a clue?
I uploaded a scanned image to my Pbase page and posted a link above but here it is again:

http://www.pbase.com/jkovatch/graphs_and_charts

[Pugsy]

Oops, sorry...didn't know you didn't know how to insert and image.
We talked about it here...even covers getting the image for those that don't know how to do screen shots.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=81072&p=737779#p737779

[MyIdaho]

Julius,

Your link is password protected and we can't view it without the PW. Probably best just to add images directly to your post as described by Pugsy's link.

[Julius]

Sorry about that, I did not realize that I put it in one of the Psswd protected folder.
In the meantime I updated the link and it should not be Psswd protected now. Later on I will look into what Pugsy so kindly sent me.
Here is the new link again:
http://www.pbase.com/jkovatch/graphs_and_charts

[avi123]

IMO, you can't interpret the flow rate at this "speed". It needs to be slowed down to 1 to 5 min for the whole Window.
In SleepyHead you need to click on the Flow Graph until you see the respiration waves individually. I don't know how many times to click.
That's why I prefer ResScan.

Check the ResScan Tutorial link at my signature line b/c, IMO, you're saying something wrong about the Pressure vs Flow. Or may be you're an Alien
at Roseville, CA, saying something new to us humans?

See here in ResScan one of my Central Apnea flag shown together with the Flow and the Pressure graphs (the Pressure did NOT go up in this case):

[Slartybartfast]

Looks like you might have a ramp set, and while you are still awake you breathe more shallowly, then when you make the transition into sleep, your breathing becomes deeper. At the same time your need for pressure appears to increase and you end up around 15-16 cm pressure. [Looks like Avi beat me to it, but I'll reiterate] You really need to zoom in to the 5 minute or 1 minute time frame to see enough of the flow chart profile to see what's going on. At full scale, not much can be discerned from the data other than gross changes in volume breathed (flow rate X time).

[avi123]

I usually check the following data to check my treatment:


One night Stats report:



If you have, 30 days Stats report:




If you have, 6 months Stats report:



Pressure and Events graphs:

(Data for APAP= AutoCPAP mode is shown)



Notice in the above Stats that my Median pressure is 9.4 cm and the 95% (percentile) pressure is 12.4 cm. I relied on this info to set- up my S9 Autoset machine to 12.6 cm max and 8.0 cm minimum. This set-up took me some time to arrive at by following the pressure graph in Rescan. I strated with the first set- up by using the optimal CPAP pressure from my latest sleep study. But later, I fine tuned the setup, by changing the limit pressures gradually as to have the pressure graph only "kiss" the two limit lines of max and min pressures. See the graph above. The idea was to set the limits so that the machine should not 1) Waste time responding to events, and 2) Run the pressure up, suddenly, and cause new Emergent Central Apneas and also cause the ingested air to rise.

Leak and Snore graphs:



Flow and Flow Limitation graphs:

(the Flow graph will be needed to show detailed graphs in the double panels)




p.s. to print a post you should first copy the post to a wordprocessor (like Microsoft Word) and from there do a regular printing.