CPAP vs APAP & should I change?

[Tip10]

Background:
Diagnosed about 7-8 years ago w/ severe apnea (in-clinic sleep study AHI>90, O2 desat low 60’s).
Went on CPAP straight 12cm with excellent results — symptoms gone, AHI routinely between 1 & 2 and usually under 1. Have been 100% compliant from day 1.

Now to today:
About a month ago replaced my S9 straight CPAP w/ an AirSense 10 Auto. It is currently set on Auto with min=max=12.
Still achieving great results. Last 30 days AHI under 1 except for 5 days with highest at 1.5.

Questions:
Should I change settings to better take advantage of APAP? And if so what min/max would you think a starting point? Yes, I have Sleepyhead (& Rescan) and occasionally check things. Can post if any interest.
Or, should I leave well enough alone and count my blessings that things are working quite well?

I use Circadense cloth masks (switch between SleepWeaver and Elan (have slight allergy to silicon which prevents use of vast majority of masks) and have had great luck with them, HOWEVER, have had to add a chin strap recently to prevent occasional mouth breathing (never used to and not every night but seeming to get worse lately).

Thanks!

[Julie]

Why fix what's not broken?

[LSAT]

I agree with Julie...but...If you want to try, I would go 11/15.

[Okie bipap]

If you're curious, go ahead and use the settings LSAT recommended. I tried straight pressure for a period of time (18 cm) but decided to use a range (17 - 20 cm). I usually stay between 17 and 18 cm but occasionally go as high as 19 cm. My AH I is under 1 almost every night.

[palerider]

Why change if it's working? because it might work better.

I'd go with 12-20, then post some charts.

if your pressure just stays flat at 12 for long periods, then you could try dropping the min pressure a cm at a time, until it's not flatlined all the time.

I don't like to drop pressure right at first when going from fixed to variable pressure, many people drop the pressure (many of them more than the conservative amount that LSAT suggested) and that's frequently causes problems... too big a change.

[Wulfman...]

Background:
Diagnosed about 7-8 years ago w/ severe apnea (in-clinic sleep study AHI>90, O2 desat low 60’s).
Went on CPAP straight 12cm with excellent results — symptoms gone, AHI routinely between 1 & 2 and usually under 1. Have been 100% compliant from day 1.

Now to today:
About a month ago replaced my S9 straight CPAP w/ an AirSense 10 Auto. It is currently set on Auto with min=max=12.
Still achieving great results. Last 30 days AHI under 1 except for 5 days with highest at 1.5.

Questions:
Should I change settings to better take advantage of APAP? And if so what min/max would you think a starting point? Yes, I have Sleepyhead (& Rescan) and occasionally check things. Can post if any interest.
Or, should I leave well enough alone and count my blessings that things are working quite well?

I use Circadense cloth masks (switch between SleepWeaver and Elan (have slight allergy to silicon which prevents use of vast majority of masks) and have had great luck with them, HOWEVER, have had to add a chin strap recently to prevent occasional mouth breathing (never used to and not every night but seeming to get worse lately).

Thanks!

My suggestion would be to bump the min and max up to 13 for awhile and see how that goes.

Personally, I've never had any luck with ranges of pressures. My nightly breathing doesn't have the "precursor events" (flow limitations and snoring) that the algorithms look for to increase pressures, or at least they don't precede any apneas or hypopneas, so the events will occur anyway unless I have the pressure set to where it prevents most of them occurring in the first place. And, many times the pressure changes disturbed my sleep.

There's absolutely no reason for you NOT to try a range of pressures either. But, I'd suggest setting the minimum to what you've been previously using and then maybe a 5 centimeter range to start with. Just monitor your data/reports to look at how your machine reacts to whatever events you have.


Den

.