OSCAR high leak rate and grey bands

[haughki]

Hi,

Two questions:
- can anyone give me an idea about what would cause such high leak rates? It doesn't happen every night, and I can't think of what might be causing it when it does.
- What are the grey vertical bars on the Flow Rate and Leak Rate graphs?

Thanks!

oscar_leaks.jpg (476.19 KiB) Viewed 1136 times

[Dog Slobber]

High leak rates are caused by:

• Poor mask fits
• Mouth breathing on Nasal masks
• Opening one's mouth and causing a poor seal on full face masks

On ResMeds the threshold for acceptable leaking is 24 L/M, anything above that contributes to reducing the machines ability to detect apneas (or the type of apnea), and therefore reduces its ability to address them properly. The grey bars are the times when the leak rate is above 24 Litres / Minute.

[Miss Emerita]

I realize you didn’t ask about this, but I’m curious. Why are you using a relatively low and fixed pressure? You’re having a fair number of obstructive apneas with that setting.

[haughki]

@Dog Slobber -- tx, crystal clear.

I realize you didn’t ask about this, but I’m curious. Why are you using a relatively low and fixed pressure? You’re having a fair number of obstructive apneas with that setting.

@Miss Emerita -- tx for asking. Basically, I was doing something ridiculous I've been struggling with mask leaks, and thought I would try a low constant pressure just to see if I could get through a night without leaks (I guess: not a very well-formed plan . Having read a bunch more about mask fitting, etc., I realize that it didn't really make much sense.

[Miss Emerita]

Sounds like you're on it, haughki. Do give yourself a higher minimum, and while you're at it, give yourself a range. I would suggest 9 to 20 just to see how that goes, but you may have had previous settings that were working well on heading off the obstructive apneas.