apap vs straight cpap

I was originally set with a 6 to 18 pressure range. I've since changed it myself to 9.5 to 18. I was titrated at 13. Most nights I average 11 to 13, but the other night it went as high as 17 but that was with a new ff mask that I returned because of excessive leaks. My question is, would you tweak the range some more or set it at straight cpap?

trytryagain wrote:I was originally set with a 6 to 18 pressure range. I've since changed it myself to 9.5 to 18. I was titrated at 13. Most nights I average 11 to 13, but the other night it went as high as 17 but that was with a new ff mask that I returned because of excessive leaks. My question is, would you tweak the range some more or set it at straight cpap?

That would be my suggestion.


Den

What was wrong with 13?
I was titrated at 7 cpap. I have found that whatever the range, the pressure stays at the top 1/3 of that range, and my flow limitations appear to have increased with pressure increases. So I woudn't raise it randomly.

Huh?

Wulfman wrote:

trytryagain wrote:I was originally set with a 6 to 18 pressure range. I've since changed it myself to 9.5 to 18. I was titrated at 13. Most nights I average 11 to 13, but the other night it went as high as 17 but that was with a new ff mask that I returned because of excessive leaks. My question is, would you tweak the range some more or set it at straight cpap?

That would be my suggestion.

Mine too. It seems to me that there is a lot to be said for giving straight CPAP at the titrated pressure a fair try before modifying it, unless the doctor has specifically advised something else.

Another thing you could try is to stay in auto mode but set the minimum pressure at 13. I can't speak from experience, but the idea is that if the pressure is high enough to stop most apneas from starting, you won't get jacked up into the higher end of your range as much. If you set a lower pressure and the machine's predictive algorithms don't respond in time, then your airway closes, and the resulting cascade of problems could cause the machine to increase the pressure to the max setting. In other words, the 9.5 minimum may be launching you up to 17.