Leakage help?!?!

[Chefchad37]

Thanks pugsy. That was very helpful. So for the most part, my leaks are under control? That is good to hear. Thank you

[Pugsy]

Yes...your leaks are probably better than "for the most part" under control. We would need to see the software graphs to know if you ever ventured into large leak territory but I can tell right now with the average you have now...if you went to large leak territory you didn't stay there long and I don't ever worry about brief trips like that.
The average would be a lot higher if you went there and stayed there for a long time.

Heck..for all we know you never went even to 70 L/min which is still within acceptable limits much less into large leak territory.

That's the disadvantage to just looking at an average number because we don't know what all the numbers were that comprise that total to make the average. We can't see where it went but we do know about the law of numbers and you would need substantial amount of time over 90 L/min to bring that average up to close to 90 L/min and it just isn't there. Now if that average number was up around 80 to 85 L/min then I would be wondering because for the average to be that high we would expect a good size block over 90 L/min.

[robysue]

For your machine and your mask at your pressure the total leak rate is well within acceptable limits of where the machine can easily compensate for the leak. If you did get up to large leak territory which is 90 L/min for the M series machines you weren't up there very long or we would see a higher total leak average.

Averages can be misleading for a number of reasons. While I suspect that Chefchad37's leaks are ok for the most part for the same reasons that Pugsy does, it's important to remember that the overall average may have little or nothing to do with the data distribution.

If the leaks are pretty close to 57 L/min all night long, then there's some (minor) leaking going on all night. But the leaks are small enough for a Resprionics M-series to have no trouble compensating. And then the question of "Do I need to worry about the leaks?" boils down to: "How much are they disturbing your sleep?"

But there's another way that the average leak rate can be around 57 L/min: Let's suppose that you sleep with the machine for 8 hours. And for simplicity, let's assume that 2/3 of the night the total leak rate is right around the mask's expected leak rate of 43 L/min. And let's also suppose that during 1/3 of the night, the leaks are really bad and pushing Large Leak territory. In other words, let's assume that for 1/3 of the night, the leak rate is up around 90 L/min. What do you think the average leak rate will be? Here's how we'd compute the average leak rate:

• Average Leak Rate
  = [(43 * time spent with leaks = 43) + (90 * time spent with leaks = 90)]/(total run time)
  = [(43*5.33 hours) + (90*2.67 hours)]/(8 hours)
  = [229.19 + 240.3]/8
  = 469.49/8
  = 58.69 L/min

And if you're spending 1/3 of the night flirting with Large Leak territory, that's a problem.

Now the real question is which scenario is more likely? And that's not possible to tease out from just one figure. If Chefchad37 notices a lot of little leaks anytime he's awakened, then it's much more likely he has a lot of small leaks all night long, and as long as they're not keeping him from getting back to sleep, they're probably nothing to worry about. But if Chefchad37 never detects a small, unintentional leak when he's awake during the night, it's worth trying to look at the data in the Encore software just to make sure that he's not dealing with massive mask leaks that he's sleeping through during a significant chunk of the night.

[Pugsy]

For anyone wondering why I haven't pushed for using the Encore software with this M series machine....OP doesn't have the card reader that is needed and I don't even know if he has the smart card but since I read in another thread that he is trying to get an updated machine that uses the SD card system and money is tight and I would think the money would be better spent putting it towards a newer machine. The DT3500 Infineer card reader runs around $75 and I just don't see a critical need to spend the money to see what the M series is showing...I think it would be better to put that money towards a newer full data machine that uses a SD card.