Does the ResMed Elites read AHI's more aggressively??

[kjarels]

I have owned mine for about a month now and the reason I ask that is because nothing I have done has brought the AHI's down. On my old machine that I had to take in and get a reading my AHI's were around 1.8 or so. Now with this new machine the lowest I have been is 4.8 but mostly runs in the 8's. I do not care what I have tried, increase the pressure, decrease the pressure it makes no difference. I have played with the EPR by putting it on 3 which I prefer because its easier to exhale, and decreased it to 2 and still no difference. Just curious if anyone else had this problem. Also last night I tried the tape over my lips and still had some air come out of the corners of my mouth, even with tape over them. I actually woke up once and felt the air leak out.

[soulrhythm]

Good question...I'm interested in people's response as well. I have the Resmed Autoset Vantage, and have had the best luck getting my AHI down in APAP mode. Three nights now at 2.6 or below. I am noticing, however, that it is reporting more hypopneas than apneas, which when I asked about (see thred below), "ozij" said Resmed is more agressive at reading Hypopneas.

Which level is higher in your readings?

Also, what is your leak rate? I am just now also getting my leaks under control (under .22), which I have read makes a huge difference as well.

viewtopic/t26231/Question-about-AI-vers ... dings.html

[kjarels]

Like I said, I have increased my pressure and decreased my pressure and it has made no difference whatsoever.

[DreamStalker]

What was your "old" machine?

What were the settings on your old machine?

Are you using the same mask as with your old machine?

How often are you changing your pressure up and down?

[kjarels]

I used the optilife pillow and my settings on it was set at 13, although the Dr had it set for 10, the medical supply lady said I needed more pressure after she read my software so she set it at 13. I had the EPR set at 3. Since I am a mouth breather she said it would better if I tried a full face mask and gave me the quattro to try but I couldn't get a good seal and again felt like smothering. I have a beard but it is very, very short and well trimmed. So she gave me the Activa to try with a chin strap, again I felt like I was smothering so I increased it 16 with the EPR set at 3. For some reason it just does not feel like I am getting enough air in the mask, it could be in my head.

[ozij]

kjarels,
Suz-E-Q responded to your smothering thread a as follows, and I agree with her:

viewtopic.php?p=226810#226810

[quote="Suz-E-Q"]I found that when I felt like I was suffocating or smothering....it was because I couldn't exhale easily (it would take too much effort to push out the air). Our exhale is the "relaxed" portion of breathing (when we die we exhale, chickens on the other hand inhale when they die - they use muscles to exhale - yeah, I know like you really needed to know that) and feeling like I had to breathe out hard made it feel suffocating and it was definitely frightening. So you might not do well with higher pressure if it is because you can't exhale completely. They ended up putting me on BiPAP because of the high pressure I need and that I felt like I couldn't breathe.

I actually thought of making the vent holes in the mask bigger if they couldn't help me feel like I could breathe. I am on BiPAP 14 inhale and 11 exhale. I use the Activa and find that I am breathing okay and exhaling okay with it.

See if you feel like you are naturally able to let your breath out or if you feel like you need to work too hard at it to breathe out. If that is the case you might need BiPAP.

Not sure if any of this might be your case, but it is what I experienced and now things are okay.

Good Luck
Suzanne

[rested gal]

Also last night I tried the tape over my lips and still had some air come out of the corners of my mouth, even with tape over them. I actually woke up once and felt the air leak out.

Unless you were using tape that wasn't sticky enough...that came loose at the corners... you probably didn't cover the corners of your mouth with a wide enough patch.

When I used tape, I had to use two overlapping strips of 1" wide adhesive tape, and I cut the two strips long enough to extend well beyond the corners of my mouth. One little piece of tape over the lips wasn't anywhere near enough to control mouth air leaks for me.

This is a picture I retouched as a joke showing me "geared up", but it really does depict the size of the tape patch I wore every night for over three years:



About your original question: Every resmed machine I've used has reported a much higher "HI" (hypopnea index) number for me than any other brand (Respironics and Puritan Bennett) machines I've used. The AI (apnea index) will be the same as with any other brand, but the HI (for me) with resmed machines is usually about double the HI that the others report. I got the same treatment and same "rested" results with any machines. It was just a difference in the way resmed machines report things...didn't affect how I felt at all.

[Spooky]

I was going to comment but you're too nice a person
lol