A Flex settings

[Pesser]

I am using AFLEX at the setting of 1. My minimum pressure is 10 H20. I am wondering if using AFLEX can affect the air that I am getting between breaths. I am asking this because I don’t want my air to constrict between breaths (I have UARS). I don’t need Bipap. At least not yet. But I want to get the most protection between breaths. Anybody have any ideas? Would a different setting of AFLEX be a better assurance of protection between breaths?

[Pugsy]

The amount of reduction during exhale using the Flex settings on Respironics machines is flow based and the potential for the greatest reduction occurs with the higher flex settings. It still isn't going to be a massive reduction even at the max setting of 3.

How Flex works in more easy to understand terms
Have you seen this?
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=88991&hilit=+CPAP+Basics+re%3A
just follow the links for further reading.

So its really more of timing of the reduction that offers the comfort than it is the amount of reduction.
If you were worrying about the reduction potentially being a negative factor and allowing some flow limitations to occur...I doubt that they would be significant but the potential is probably there...and the only way to eliminate it would be to not use Flex.

[patrick_a]

In addition to Pugsy's link, here is an excerpt from PR's manual:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6wo5t2ed3zyhm ... pImage.png

[Pesser]

Hi Pugsy:
Thanks for that. Do I understand you correctly? In your post I am getting that the least risky setting other than zero is 1.

[Julie]

It usually is.

[Pugsy]

In theory I suppose that eliminating the very minor reduction that AFlex exhale relief would offer at the lowest setting of 1 would lessen any risk that the slightly lower setting allows for potential collapse of the airway to happen.
I can't see it being much risk but in theory...it could be.
Respironics Flex options don't work like ResMed's EPR exhale relief where the reduction in pressure is 1 cm per setting.
We a talking about a less than 1 cm reduction with the Flex setting. We don't have any way to know exactly what the reduction amounts to because it can vary with the force of a person's own breathing. In other words if you and I both used a setting of 1 on our Respironics machines but we breathed differently (as in force) then the reduction isn't the same for both of us.

It's hard to evaluate UARS therapy with the information that we glean from cpap/apap machines because the UARS reduction in air flow may be below what the criteria for apnea flagged events might have.
Like if we need a 50% reduction for a hyponea and we are only having a 40% reduction (which might happen with UARS) the machine won't flag anything until it is 50% and for 10 seconds...if it was 40 % for 60 seconds it still wouldn't earn an OSA event flag. So it's going to be difficult to measure if that tiny bit of reduction that AFlex offers really does anything negatively to the air flow.

It isn't impossible though to have minor changes in pressure (for whatever reason) to impact how well the airway is held open to start with.