Leak Alert--Anyone Tried It?

[sleepyguy1]

Has anyone had any experience with the Leak Alert on an APAP?

I use a Swift LT Nasal Pillows and I have a lot of leak, and noticed this
Leak Alert is on my Resmed APAP Patient Menu and can be turned on.

I download the data, and every night I go through a period of 1-2
hours with very high leaks. 6 nights a week I wake up feeling good
and 1 night a week I wake up feeling awful.

I tape my mouth and I am not sure if the leak is from the tape coming up,
or whether I roll on my side and the LT comes off my nose, and was
thinking about using the leak alert to see if this helps.

Thanks!

[Pugsy]

I have leak alert on my M series machine. It is on but it isn't very loud and the few times the mask has come off I never heard it. Just woke up with mask off and machine turned off because of prolonged large leak. For grins one night I purposely let it get a large leak and I heard the beeps but it was barely audible.
Don't know how loud yours might be with your machine.....

[jdm2857]

I was wondering whether you secure the LT's hose to the top strap.

Also, do you use an overhead hose management system. (You can easily make one from a few dollars worth of plastic plumbing supplies.)

I find that those two items helped to reduce leaks, as the hose can pull the mask out of position when you change positions.

[sleepyguy1]

Thanks for the info! You gave me a good idea.

I do secure the hose to the top strap, and I used
to have a hose suspension system but quit using
it when I got the LT because I did not think I needed
it.

I will try that again and see if it helps.

[sleepyguy1]

I used my hose suspension system last night and the results were much better.
I still have a lot of leak from 12:30-2:15 but very little after that. Usually I
have a lot of leak all night.

But I woke up again feeling very sleepy, but not awful.

The odd thing is that it was at the end of the night when I was
having almost no leak that I had most of my events. From
3:30-5:30 I had almost constant events, including two apneas
with almost no leak, and it appears the APAP was not
responding to the events. I think my doctor set the pressure at
10-16, and it was constant on 10 during this time.

Finally after 5:30 the pressure went up and the events decreased.

Can anyone make anything of this, and thanks!

[Mary Z]

I have used leak alert, but only once as the audible alarm woke my roommate and me up. I got a new mask (FitLife aTotal Face Mask) and no longer have a problem with leaks. I know the purpose of the alarm is to wake you to make adjustments, but it is a pain being woken up all through the night if your leaks are bad.

[Pugsy]

If the machine didn't respond to a scored event, it likely means that it didn't know what to do with it because for some reason it didn't meet the criteria that is within the software that needs to be met before responding.

Could you please post the last night's report and we can see if we spot anything?

[sleepyguy1]

Thanks for the info.

How do you post it? I have never done that
and do no know how.

[Pugsy]

Here is how I post images.

Make sure the image is at 100% size (too small we can't read it)
Take a screen shot of the image. I use Vista snipping tool so that I can take the screen shot and crop at the same time.
Cropping gets rid of the excess stuff on a normal screen shot.
Save the cropped screen shot as a jpg file where you can easily find it.
We have to use a photo hosting site for images. I use Photobucket but any hosting site will work.
Upload the saved jpg file to the hosting site.
Copy the entire IMG address (be sure to get opening and closing IMG brackets)
Paste the entire address into the body of the post here.
Use the preview function to make sure you can see the image, if you can't try again.
If you can see the image then submit and you are done.

There are various free photo editing programs that will take snapshots and allow cropping. I just use the Vista tool because it is so easy.
Screen shots that are of the whole desktop are a bit distracting but as long as we can see the numbers easily, we can manage.

[sleepyguy1]

Thanks for the info. I will have to try to figure out how to do it.

From what I gather from what you say, the file is uploaded to a
website and the link to the website is in the message?

I guess I need to register with Photobucket to post it?

I was hoping I could just scan it and paste it, but I take it I
can not do that. I will try to figure out tonight how to do it.

Thanks.

[Pugsy]

Yes, we must use a photo hosing site or other sort of web link. We can't simply embed images here like we can with regular email and we can't do attachments here.

Photobucket is free and easy to use.

It isn't hard once you do it.

[jdm2857]

If the machine didn't respond to a scored event, it likely means that it didn't know what to do with it because for some reason it didn't meet the criteria that is within the software that needs to be met before responding.

In an attempt to avoid inducing central apneas, ResMed S8 and prior APAPs do not increase pressure in response to apneas at pressures of 10 or above. Above 10, these machines only increase pressure in response to snores and flow limitations, both of which are not associated with centrals. Unfortunately, the S8s do not include snore, flow or flow limitation in the downloaded data, so it is difficult to discern what is triggering pressure increases or the lack thereof. I bought a ResLink module (now obsolete) for my S8 AutoSet II, as it does download snore and flattening data (flattening is related to flow limitation.) Unfortunately, the flattening graphs are hard to understand (they are totally different from the S9 flow limitation graphs), so I still cannot fully explain why my machine increases or fails to increase pressure.

To be clear, the S9 AutoSet, which can detect centrals , uses a new algorithm which takes the central information into account. So the above does not apply to the S9s. (I wish I had an S9 to try.) The S9s download flow, flow limitation and snore data, too.

[Janknitz]

Hmmmm, It almost sounds like you are mouth breathing during REM sleep, but the tape suggests otherwise.

You might take a look at the lab rat trophy awards: viewtopic.php?t=15104 There's a really good one using an elastic strap for the LT--you hook it on those face hugging pieces and it really holds the LT rock solid so that it doesn't shift and leak when you move in your sleep. Also try UFO13's suggestion of sewing some velcro (hook, or stiff side) into the inside back strap to keep it from moving when you move your head against the bed pillow. If you do those two things, there's almost no way the pillows can leak at night (unless they are wearing out, which happens quickly).

[Pugsy]

Thanks Jdm2857 for clarifying my ramblings. In my head that was what I was thinking but was hard for me to find the right words to convey my thoughts. I remember those old threads where the S8 approach to events over 10 cm of pressure were discussed but the clear wording explanation had recessed deep into my brain.

[Emmy1]

I was using a Phillips Resperonics APAP from my provider which had leak alert. I really found it helpful. I am now trying a ResMed machine which doesn't have leak alert. I miss it.

I think its a worthwhile feature.