testing to see if it works?

Jay Aitchsee wrote:while your leak line does exhibit some of the characteristics of mouth leaks (flat, plateau shaped)

Jay, I did a little experiment back this summer when I was trialing the DreamWear Gel Pillows and was getting more leaks than I wanted.
Some had the spikes and some had the plateau looking appearance and I just didn't think I was doing all that much mouth breathing. So I wanted to know for sure what I was dealing with and I decided to tape for one night. I still had the plateau looking leaks at times even with tape securely in place (was still secure in the AM). So even mask movement can present with a plateau look. The only way to know for sure is to tape.

grybeard77 wrote:Thanks!! The large leaks are mouth breathing,( I think ) and even though I use a cervical collar I can still let some air out of the pie hole. These leaks are mild up against most nights. But as Pugsy says, not to worry to much about leaks when every thing else looks good and you feel good.

Up to you how much you want to investigate the leaks and then do something about them....should you decide that you want to do something about them.
I wouldn't worry about leaks that are just 5% to 10% of my night unless I had prolonged times above 35 L/min unless all those spikes were waking me up. Your leaks are very brief and sporadic...none are really very prolonged. I doubt that your AHI would be any different with a nice pretty leak line.

drq wrote:

palerider wrote:

Guest wrote:Problem is that leaks can cause the cpap not to detect events which simply means the AHI can be misleading.

This is not true. The machine *CAN* detect events even with really bad leaks, but above around 30-35lpm it starts to be unable to tell what TYPE of event is happening, and will flag an apnea as a UA, Unknown Apnea, instead of CA or OA.

Which leads misleading to AHI count.

No, it doesn't.

An night of 30 obstructive and 10 central apneas in 8 hours will result in an AHI of 5.

A night of 40 Unknown Apneas in 8 hours will result in an AHI of .... 5.

palerider wrote:No, it doesn't.

An night of 30 obstructive and 10 central apneas in 8 hours will result in an AHI of 5.

A night of 40 Unknown Apneas in 8 hours will result in an AHI of .... 5.

The point is if he had 150 events during this period but it (like you) only counted 40 then it is indeed misleading.
The question is does he feel like an AHI of .53?

You betcha!!!!

Guest wrote:

palerider wrote:No, it doesn't.

An night of 30 obstructive and 10 central apneas in 8 hours will result in an AHI of 5.

A night of 40 Unknown Apneas in 8 hours will result in an AHI of .... 5.

The point is if he had 150 events during this period but it (like you) only counted 40 then it is indeed misleading.
The question is does he feel like an AHI of .53?

Apparently you didn't notice where I pointed out that the machine isn't going to miss events until the leaks are so incredibly bad that it can't detect *any* breathing... and his leaks are *WELL* below that point. All one has to do is glance at the flow strip and see it's not flatline, therefore, the machine isn't going to miss any events.

In other words, your point.... isn't one.

Even in the face of a really large leak the machine can and will flag events as well as breathing.
Here's an example.


It takes a really, really big leak for the machine to not be able to detect breathing. I was pushing 40 L/min with this example and I still was showing breathing and got one little hyponea flag. Now would 60 L/min cause the machine to be clueless? I don't know...I don't normally have leaks of this magnitude that last very long. This one was mask movement trialing the DreamWear with gel nasal pillows and they simply moved around at times...and yes, I did tape my mouth to make sure it wasn't mouth breathing when I was trialing this mask. I needed to know if it was for sure mask movement or mouth breathing for my evaluation of the mask.