Two questions

[tst29m]

1. Is it possible to get one's AHI down to 0.0? My best was 0.6; my worst was 2.9.
2. What is considered acceptable for leakage minutes? My best was 3.1 minutes; my worst was 28.8 minutes (over an average of 9 hours).

[Emilia]

Those are great numbers any way you look at them!! An AHI under 5 is considered therapeutic. Most of us try to keep it lower than 5 and find we feel much better the lower it gets. My lowest so far has been 0.3, but my machine has a different algorithm than yours. I average 1.5 month to month so far so I have no complaints!

[robysue]

1. Is it possible to get one's AHI down to 0.0? My best was 0.6; my worst was 2.9.

These are excellent numbers.

2. What is considered acceptable for leakage minutes? My best was 3.1 minutes; my worst was 28.8 minutes (over an average of 9 hours).

This is confusing and probably misleading. Where are you getting these numbers from?

Your signature shows you are using the S9 Elite. I am assuming you got those Leak numbers off the machine's LCD in the discussion that follows.

The S9 machines report leak numbers in terms of Unintentional Leak Rate in Liters per minute. The number on the S9's LCD is the so-called 95% Leak Rate (measured in L/min). If your 95% Leak Rate is 3.1, that means that 95% of the time the machine was running, the S9 was detecting an UNintentional leak rate LESS THAN or EQUAL to 3.1 Liters per minute, and it was detecting an UNintentional leak rate GREATER THAN or EQUAL to 3.1 L/m for 5% of the night. Since you say that you are averaging about 9 hours with the machine per night and since 5% of one hour equals 3 minutes, a 95% Leak Rate = 3.1 indicates that for 9*3=27 minutes, your UNintentional Leak Rate was AT or ABOVE 3.1 L/min. That's actually a pretty decent 95% leak rate for the S9.

Now, the night that your Leak Rate = 28.8 L/min, you were leaking at a rate AT or ABOVE 28.8 L/min for roughly 3*9=27 minutes of the night. Is that bad? Well, in one sense yes---Resmed says that any leak over 24 L/min is problematic because that's where the machine's ability to cope with the leak---in terms of delivery therapy and in terms of accurately recording the "event" data---starts to be compromised. However, Resmed also believes that such large leaks become clinically significant if you are leaking AT or ABOVE 24 L/min for 25% or more of the night---in other words, the 75% leak rate is AT or ABOVE 24 L/min. For a 9 hour night, that means you need a total of (15 minutes/hour)*(9 hours)=135 minutes, which is 2 1/4 hours, in large leaks before Resmed's engineers are concerned about your leaks. The S9's LCD warns a user that their 75% Leak Rate is AT or ABOVE 24 L/min by having Mr. Red Frowny Face show up in the Short Sleep Quality report---the one you get to when you just press the info button when you're looking at the Home screen and the machine is OFF.

So the real question about how bad is that 95% Leak Rate = 28.8 is this: Did Mr. Red Frowny Face show up the next morning? If the answer is YES, then the leaks are a MAJOR problem. If the answer is no, the leaks are still significant, but likely short enough in length that your therapy is not being seriously compromised. But then the question really becomes one of whether the large leaks were causing comfort problems---air in the eyes, chapped lips, a dry mouth, enough noise to cause you to wake up off and on to "fix" the mask, and anything else that disturbed your sleep.

[tst29m]

Thank you Robysue for your reply. I did have the green smiley face, so that makes me feel better. Before I asked my two questions, I should have read topics and comments further down in the forum - all were answered! I should have known better - I'm a retired teacher!

[LinkC]

Yes, it is possible for some people to achieve 0.0 AHI. But it MAY not be possible for everyone. The best goal to shoot for is "the best you can" of course. As Emilia said, you have some great numbers already. If you can go lower, even better...but don't feel bad if you can't.

Leak rate is also a "low as possible" thing. Try to keep "Mr. Frowny Face" away (as Robysue calls him)...

[lars4life]

.

[tst29m]

Thank you to all who replied!

[Janknitz]

I should have known better - I'm a retired teacher!

LOL--my 18 year old is graduating next week. My favorite part of this is that for 14 of those 18 years I've been listening to her whine "it's not in the book" nearly every night when she does her homework. It's ALWAYS in the book, she's just too darn lazy to actually read the assignments and smart enough to get away with that (at least smart enough to know I get sick of listening to her whine and usually end up showing her right in the book where it is!).

She's on her own in college. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Breathe Jimbo]

You may have the occasional 0.0, but no one has 0.0 every night.

The goal is to keep AHI below 5.0.

[Mike Pasquinel]

You may have the occasional 0.0, but no one has 0.0 every night.

The goal is to keep AHI below 5.0.

Does the 5.0 include centrals (or CA as my machine puts it)? I was diagnosed at AHI > 40 and all Hypops so I watch that closely. Also, I see alot of talk on here that I shouldn't pay so much attention to CA's.

Let me add that my OA + H generally runs 2-3 total and CA's make up like 50-60% of my overall AHI (5-7). If I'm way down from 40, wouldn't that be considered successful therapy?

Sorry, not trying to hijack the thread

[Lizistired]

1. Is it possible to get one's AHI down to 0.0? My best was 0.6; my worst was 2.9.
2. What is considered acceptable for leakage minutes? My best was 3.1 minutes; my worst was 28.8 minutes (over an average of 9 hours).

I am content with my AHI <1.0, but leaks are the beast. Seems to be no rhyme or reason. Take it one day at a time.