what is the difference in A flex an C flex

I have been on a cpap for almost a month now. This site is a great place to get infor. I have saw alot of people talk about A flex and C flex. My machine is a C flex and I was told to keep it on 3. My pressure is 12. Can someone tell me what the flex is? Thanks for been a great place to be

It relieves some pressure when you breathe out. It's supposed to make exhaling easier for you. The AFLEX is just a bit different algorithm than the CFLEX. Personally I don't like the AFLEX, it doesn't seem to work with my breathing where the CFLEX does...sorta. I don't think the machine always senses when I'm breathing out.

Here is something rested gal once said about A-flex and C-flex, if I may plagiarize her again:

In a nutshell, C-flex affects only the beginning of exhaling. As I understand it (and I could be wrong) A-flex does that too, but A-flex also "smooths" the transition of the pressure moving back up. A-flex rounds out the transitions, smoothing more than just the beginning of exhaling. I've used both, and A-flex is definitely more comfortable to me than just C-flex. Each person is different though. Some like one better than the other. Some like both turned off. The nice thing about getting the auto with A-flex is that is does also have C-flex. You can use whichever suits you better, or... neither.-- viewtopic.php?f=1&t=36857&p=320488&hili ... pr#p320488

The A Flex is REALLY comfortable breathing. Moreso than the C Flex. There was, however, something my body didn't like about it. The only way I could describe it is my lungs felt "empty". I tried it for 2 nights and didn't sleep well either night so I went back to C Flex. A Flex is the newer technology but they are both meant to ease breathing against the pressure. Try it. If you don't like it, you can certainly go back to C Flex.

I use A-Flex set at 2 and I can't praise it enough. It makes using APAP like normal breathing for me. One thing A-Flex is on 3, it seems to proceed your inhale by a tad. Setting it to 2 synced it with my normal breathing. I have to say that most nights I don't even notice I have APAP on. The mask now fits well and the machine is in sync and the breathing sound in my mask lulls me to sleep. Life is good.

One starts with an "A" and one starts with a "C".
And, you can read about them here:

http://aflex.respironics.com/

http://cflex.respironics.com/


Den

http://aflex.respironics.com/

http://cflex.respironics.com/

I hated A flex - it felt like it was trying to anticipate my breathing and it 'stuttered' at the end of each exhale. I guess it's to each his own.

In terms of using c-flex, feel free to switch settings, it's merely a comfort thing.

My setting is really low- just a 5, but I can tell that the pressure changes a bit while using the c flex. I kinda like it. very soothing...but that's just me.

Cflex as has been well illustrated, works on the period from when you start to breathe out

Aflex adds the other half of the process & adds smoothing to the cycle. Aflex is Cflex plus (it includes Cflex)

The two provide exhale relief and Aflex adds smoothing of the airflow, through starting exhale and resuming inhaling.

Just looking at Cflex, what it attempts to do is to soften the effort it takes to start breathing out against the air being pumped into you.
The cpap normally keeps pumping air at the pressure it is set at (or currently running at if an AUTO).

Many people starting out on cpap therapy find that transition from inhale to exhale to be the most unpleasant part of the whole cpap breathing
cycle. Cflex drops the pressure 'momentarily' when the machine senses you are about to breath out, this takes away that struggle to breathe
out. The settings merely adjust how big the dip in pressure is.

One side effect of Cflex is that at higher pressures (say 14+) and at max setting (of 3), when the pressure dip ends (which happens while you are exhaling), the resumption of normal pressure can unfortunately cause some people to swallow air or to have their mouth 'pop' open which lets air escape. The result can be an increase in aerophagia (air in the tummy) - Setting Cflex to a lower setting usually eases the side effects if they happen to occur.

Aflex on the other hand, does what Cflex does but also attempts to pick up the rhythm of breathing and to adjust the pressure such that the machine synchronizes with the user. It is a 'smoothing' process plus the Cflex process.

Hope this little extra bit of detail helps.

DSM
#2 clarified that Aflex includes Cflex & thus replaces it. BUT, Aflex is only available on Respironics AUTO machines whereas Cflex has in the past been available on both.

dsm wrote:Aflex on the other hand, does what Cflex does but also attempts to pick up the rhythm of breathing and to adjust the pressure such that the machine synchronizes with the user. It is a 'smoothing' process plus the Cflex process.

.

And it may be that when I am asleep, aflex is fime. But when I am awake that feeling of 'attempting to synchronize' is just too weird for me. Hey, we are all different, right?