Who'd a thunk it?

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if your leaks are too high then your low AHI doesn't mean anything.

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If you leaks are within the limit for which your machine can compensate, then your LEAKS mean nothing ... unless they wake you up frequently, in which case they may be negatively affecting your sleep architecture.

What's the highest allowable leak rate for my machine?
My leak for the other night was 129.6.

chunkyfrog wrote:What's the highest allowable leak rate for my machine?

You can look that up in your manual.

Did the leak rate ever rise above the red line in the leak graph?

cflame1 wrote:if your leaks are too high then your low AHI doesn't mean anything.

I was wondering about this. The leak rate limit for my machine is 24 L/min. Yesterday my leak rate was 28.8 L/min, and my AHI was real low. That was the first time that my leak rate was over the limit since I've been using the machine. So a higher leak rate doesn't necessarily cause a higher AHI?

How come the threadstarter edited the first post?

beyondtired wrote:

cflame1 wrote:if your leaks are too high then your low AHI doesn't mean anything.

I was wondering about this. The leak rate limit for my machine is 24 L/min. Yesterday my leak rate was 28.8 L/min, and my AHI was real low. That was the first time that my leak rate was over the limit since I've been using the machine. So a higher leak rate doesn't necessarily cause a higher AHI?

Probably your AHI was low because the leak rate was too high for the machine to accurately measure your breathing. But just because it couldn't detect any apneas doesn't mean there weren't any.

beyondtired wrote:

cflame1 wrote:if your leaks are too high then your low AHI doesn't mean anything.

I was wondering about this. The leak rate limit for my machine is 24 L/min. Yesterday my leak rate was 28.8 L/min, and my AHI was real low. That was the first time that my leak rate was over the limit since I've been using the machine. So a higher leak rate doesn't necessarily cause a higher AHI?

No, not necessarily. But a high leak rate on an regular CPAP might mean less effective therapy (losing pressure) and thus not prevent AIs or be able to count them correctly. Too high of leak rate on an auto machine might do the same thing.

beyondtired wrote:How come the threadstarter edited the first post?

In this case, the thread was veering off the original topic, so I went with the leak, er, flow.

High leak rates shown on LED screen could be indicative of impaired therapy and/or AHI scoring
BUT
this is when I suggest that people look at the software leak graphs (if they have the software) because the large leak might be a generalized overall large leak but it can just as easily be a rather short term leak where only a couple of hours or less might be impacted by the large leak. That AHI might not be off as much as a person might think.
Six decent hours of therapy in regards to leaks and maybe 1 or 2 hours of large leak affecting only those hours but messing with the leak number on the LED screen.
To know for sure need to look at the leak graph and of course always work on leaks no matter when or how long they occur.