Resmed S9 Autoset Questions

[Houli]

Hello all,

I just got my new S9 Autoset last night .... finally upgraded from the S7 Lightweight from 10+ years ago. I have a few questions:

1. The memory card it came with seems a bit larger than the standard SD card .... how do you read the data?? Is there a recommended software?

2. How do i check the min/max pressure settings? I had it shipped to my house and am not sure what they set it to.

3. How can i tell if the Smart Start/Stop function is enabled?.

4. How often do you recommend looking at the data? Is it helpful to have a larger sample size before reviewing? What are you focusing on the most/least from the data set? Any help here is appreciated .... not sure exactly what I'm looking for.

Thanks for all the help!

Ryan

[Pugsy]

Give me a couple minutes and I will send you a private message with the provider manual information.
The provider manual will tell you how to get into the clinical menu and pretty much answer your "how to" questions.

The SD card that came with the machine is indeed a standard SD card. You may be used to seeing little mini sized SD cards. If your computer has a SD slot you need nothing else to use the SD card to access the software. If you computer does not have a SD card then you can get a generic cheap SD card reader/adapter easily. About $10 at Walmart. One end to go into a USB port on your computer and the other end you slip the SD card into.

Software...you can use ResScan...look in Uncle Bob's signature line for it...memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=38643
There is a tutorial for ResScan...http://montfordhouse.com/cpap/resscan_tutorial/

SleepyHead will also work with the ResMed S9 machines. I have links for it and the User guide in my signature line.

If you want or need instructions on how to get to the clinical menu with pictures.. there is also a video explaining the S9 features below the instructions...http://www.apneaboard.com/ResMed/ResMed ... Setup.html

[Pugsy]

How often do you recommend looking at the data? Is it helpful to have a larger sample size before reviewing? What are you focusing on the most/least from the data set? Any help here is appreciated .... not sure exactly what I'm looking for.

This question I thought I would address separately.

You can look at your reports on a night by night basis if you wish to. You will want to evaluate leaks nightly. Summary of leaks won't tell you a whole lot. So look at the first night if you wish.

In general...leaks...ResMed machines subtract a general vent rate for your mask (chosen in the setup) at your average pressure before it reports leak rate. So what you see as leak on the report is all excess leak.
Now my machine reports Total Leak which has the vent rate built in to the report. I have to mentally remove the expected vent rate to get an idea of the real excess leak. Mostly what I do is look at the leak line itself and if it stays below large leak territory (for me 90 L/min) I don't worry about leaks.

Now since the ResMed machines report excess leak only your line in the sand is 24 L/min. ResMed says this amount of leak can impact data and therapy effectiveness. Stay well below that line and you will be fine. Short lived spikes to large leak area aren't the end of the world though. Now if leaks wake you up...even if small..you will want to address them because anything that messes with our sleep is unwanted. 95% leak number just means for 95% of the night you were at OR below that leak number.
I prefer to pay more attention to the leak line itself and maybe the average leak.

Next thing to look at is your AHI...generally if the AHI is less than 5 we are told that is acceptable. I personally feel better if my AHI is less than 3. You will soon find what is normal for you. Bear in mind that these new machines will score some centrals. They may or may not be real centrals because the machine only has one dimension to evaluate and we really need more than that to score centrals accurately. A few centrals here and there are normal for everyone. They will be included in your AHI which is an overall hourly average of your events for the night. Unless a huge number of centrals we don't worry about them. We don't treat centrals with pressure increases like we do obstructive events.

The other stuff on the reports you will learn about with time and learn what is normal for you.

[Sheriff Buford]

Use the clinical manual that Pugs gave you to see what your settings are. Since my home computer is broke... I only monitor my leak rate and my ahi on a daily basis. Even if my computer wasn't broke, I probably would not download data unless out of curiosity. You can get the hours of sleep, leak rate, ahi, cental incidences and apnea incidences by pushing the "I" button and the "down" at the same time... and holding it down for 3 seconds. After the initial screen appears, turn the knob to the left and more info will show up.

Sheriff

[archangle]

Congratulations on the new machine.

Please fill in your new equipment in your profile.

[Houli]

thanks for the feedback.

[Houli]

Just checked my first night stats and are as follows .... Good or bad?

Hours used - 7.7
Pressure - 9.8 (setting range 5 - 20)
Leak - 8L/min
AHI - .6
Total AI - .6
Central AI - .5

Settings are:
Min/Max Pressure - 5-20
Max Ramp - 45 min
Start Pressure - 4.0
EPR - Full Time
EPR Level - 2
Mask - Pillows
Tube - slimline
Climate Conrol - Auto
Sleep Quality - Usage
SmartStart - Off

[Pugsy]

Extremely good numbers for anyone...especially a newbie and a first night.
Did you have any trouble sleeping? Having all this stuff attached to us does take a bit of getting used to.

[Sheriff Buford]

Your numbers are similar to mine. A lot of folks would kill to have your numbers. As you get used to the therapy, you may eventually do away with the ramp feature. I used it for a while when I first started. I found that I was "waiting" for the set pressure to "kick in" instead of concentrating on getting to sleep. Either way, keep it as long as you feel comfortable with it.

With these numbers, know that your body is healing from the damage that sleep apnea has caused you. Pat yourself on the back!

Sheriff