Question about AHI and pressure increase....

[sleepy49]

So... Im on about week six. I was having troubles with leaks and waking up. I was also snoring while wearing my mask. My DME suggested increasing my pressure from 10 to 11 to see if it would reduce my AHI. Well it worked and here are my results: I also finally looked at my machine and found that I can see my averages....nice!

7 day avg AHI 1.3 (after pressure increase)
30 day avg AHI 2.7

Sleep hours increased from 7:30/hrs per night to 7:42/hrs

So I have a couple of questions....My Large leaks are 0% for 7 and 30 day avg. umm..What is a large leak actually?

Perodic Breathing 0% ( what is this? )

Does anyone suggest increasing the pressure even more to see if I can lower the AHI even more? Is the goal to get to 0 AHI or is that even possible?

Thanks for any help!

[CorgiGirl]

I think your AHI is just fine.

Masks have an "expected leak," which takes into account the amount of air that is released so that you don't asphyxiate. You should be able to find the expected leak information in the documentation that came with your mask. A large leak is much higher than the expected leak and affects the quality of your therapy. IMO, leak data doesn't show up in enough detail on the little summary screen. Does your machine have a data card? If so, I'd see if you could buy the software so you could see your leak info in greater detail. (And other info, too....)

CG

[sleepmba]

Sleepy49,
Good questions.

Leakage- An acceptable leak is usually from 20 l/m(liters per minute) to 35 l/m depending on the mask you use. If you still have the manual from your mask, take a look through it. There should be a chart or graph showing the acceptable leak rates. I'm not sure if your machine is capable of this, but if you can see a graph for the leak for one entire night, that will show you a little more than the average. Sometimes there are spikes on your leak graph inidcating short periods where you have a large leak. Sometimes, central apneas, obstructive apneas, and hypopneas are associated with those periods. In general, your leak seems within range.

Periodic Breathing- this is a breathing disorder associated with underlying problems like COPD or CHF. Don't worry about this statistic.

AHI- As long as you are less than 5, you are doing good. After some time, if you still feel tired, you may consider a pressure increase to try and lower your AHI. You should probably wait a while before you consider doing this and keep up researching and questioning.

Check out my blog, you may find some useful information there. The hyperlink is in my signature. good luck!

[jweeks]

Does anyone suggest increasing the pressure even more to see if I can lower the AHI even more? Is the goal to get to 0 AHI or is that even possible?

Sleepy,

Being an engineer, I'd be game for trying this myself. The rule of thumb is wait a week or so between changes since it takes your body time to adapt, and only change one thing at a time. The big issue with raising pressure is that it can induce issues as well as solve them. WIth an AHI in the 1 to 2 range, I'd consider staying where you are at for a while, and seeing how you feel over time.

BTW, I had the same thing happen. At a pressure of 19, I was snoring from time to time, and was seeing an AHI between 5 and 10. I went to 20, which brought the AHI down to the 1 to 2 range, and knocked out the snores.

-john-