How to improve bad(?) CPAP diagnosis and set up

[TooGroggy]

Last week I learned that my brother-in-law had been diagnosed with apnea and prescribed a CPAP machine a couple of months ago. In that time, he averaged one hour, or less, of use per night and was on his way to giving up therapy.

When I looked at his machine, I was pleased to find that he had been given a Resmed Airsense 10 Autoset. So I showed him how to use an SD card to collect detailed data and view it in Sleepyhead. I also told him how much this site helped me when I first started using CPAP many years ago.

In the past week, he's been doing better. But his use of the machine is still very irregular (one hour one night, seven hours the next). I would appreciate any feedback you could provide to the following questions:

- Is there a good place to learn how to read the reports from Sleepyhead?
- He was assigned a CPAP machine based on an oximetry data collected at home with a device provided by his doctor. Based on that he was told he had an AHI of 30. How accurate is oximetry in diagnosing apnea? Should he insist on a sleep study?
- The machine was set to a pressure of 4-20. Was that sloppy work or is it a way to make up for lack of titration data?
- On nights when he used the machine, the pressure fluctuated between 7 and 10. Would it be beneficial to use a narrower pressure range?

Thank you.

[Okie bipap]

A setting of 4 to 20 is the default setting for ten machine. He needs to have the settings adjusted to something more reasonable. A couple nights data from Sleepyhead will give him an ideal of where to start.

[LSAT]

Last week I learned that my brother-in-law had been diagnosed with apnea and prescribed a CPAP machine a couple of months ago. In that time, he averaged one hour, or less, of use per night and was on his way to giving up therapy.

When I looked at his machine, I was pleased to find that he had been given a Resmed Airsense 10 Autoset. So I showed him how to use an SD card to collect detailed data and view it in Sleepyhead. I also told him how much this site helped me when I first started using CPAP many years ago.

In the past week, he's been doing better. But his use of the machine is still very irregular (one hour one night, seven hours the next). I would appreciate any feedback you could provide to the following questions:

- Is there a good place to learn how to read the reports from Sleepyhead?
- He was assigned a CPAP machine based on an oximetry data collected at home with a device provided by his doctor. Based on that he was told he had an AHI of 30. How accurate is oximetry in diagnosing apnea? Should he insist on a sleep study?
- The machine was set to a pressure of 4-20. Was that sloppy work or is it a way to make up for lack of titration data?
- On nights when he used the machine, the pressure fluctuated between 7 and 10. Would it be beneficial to use a narrower pressure range?

Thank you.

At the top of the main page in the announcements section you will find this post from Pugsy...
viewtopic/t88983/Pugsys-PointersSleepyH ... e4ee684588

[Ron AKA]

- Is there a good place to learn how to read the reports from Sleepyhead?
- On nights when he used the machine, the pressure fluctuated between 7 and 10. Would it be beneficial to use a narrower pressure range?

Here is a link to a guide on how to use SleepyHead - http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph ... SleepyHead

Normally one does set a narrower range than the default 4-20. However one should look at the SleepyHead charts first and get some advice from experienced people here.

[SewTired]

If it helps any, 4 and 5 are considered pediatric settings. Most adults can't breathe well at that. Maybe increase the bottom setting to 6 and see if that helps him sleep at night. Good that he's getting some nights now though!

[cpap626]

I found this youtube video helpful it shows show sleepyhead flags certain events. It also shows that sometimes some of the events that were flagged are not really events.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMkBatUVu7s

[jbgilm]

4 is so low that you can barely detect any pressure. 20 is like a hurricane. Having the max setting so high may not hurt anything because it may never go that high. But with the minimum settng so low he may not be getting enough air.