Minimum pressure on APAP

I was recently diagnosed with severe OSA (36 RDI) and given a prescription for an APAP. My respiratory physician here in Malta, Europe said that I didn't have to worry about setting pressure as the APAP would do that for me. In the clinicians menu its currently set to the default min 4, max 20. However when I'm trying to fall asleep, I feel like I don't have enough air and every couple of minutes have to take a big deep breath to compensate. I read that this could be the low pressure so I changed the min pressure to 8 just to test it for a few minutes and it felt quite a bit better although I suspect 10 might have been even more comfortable.

Sleepyhead says my average pressure over the last few nights is 9.15 and 95% pressure is 13.78. My question is whether changing the min pressure could be dangerous or not recommended for any reason.

I am confident more experienced members will chime in---however, a set minimum becomes a floor below which the machine will not go on automatic. Since you are just beginning, understanding where that floor should be might take a bit to discover. I would either set the floor to the minimum you can manage or set a reminder on your calendar to reassess the question after the initial period of adaptation.

I don't have an APAP but I have read a ton on posts on them and I think there are 2 basic approaches, with a number of variations. You may want to do a search.

One approach takes the position that APAP works best in a tight range, 8-12 or 9-14. The other approach is to raise the minimum pressure but run the APAP wide open at the max of 20 (8-20 or 9-20).

I think both sides advocate increasing the minimum pressure. I can't tell you if that is 6, 8, 9 or ???

I would think someone with real world experience will chime in.

John

Shouldn't hurt anything to have the minimum at 8 cm as your average is higher as well as the 95% pressure wants to be higher also...so the machine wants to go higher anyway.
Setting the minimum is more critical anyway for optimal therapy. Since you seem to need pressures in the lower teens anyway the original 4 cm minimum probably wasn't able to get to where it needs to be in the first place.

As long as you aren't seeing an excessive number of Clear Airway (centrals) using the software...won't hurt a thing.
Excessive being averaging 4 or 5 per hour all night long.
An occasion random Clear Airway event is normal. We only worry about them when the numbers are large or they disrupt sleep.

It very well could have been that you need the minimum up around 8 or 9 anyway to get optimal prevention of the airway collapse. When I used the APAP machine I needed 10 cm...to use a lower minimum allowed way to many airway collapses.

Isako wrote:I was recently diagnosed with severe OSA (36 RDI) and given a prescription for an APAP. My respiratory physician here in Malta, Europe said that I didn't have to worry about setting pressure as the APAP would do that for me. In the clinicians menu its currently set to the default min 4, max 20. However when I'm trying to fall asleep, I feel like I don't have enough air and every couple of minutes have to take a big deep breath to compensate. I read that this could be the low pressure so I changed the min pressure to 8 just to test it for a few minutes and it felt quite a bit better although I suspect 10 might have been even more comfortable.

Sleepyhead says my average pressure over the last few nights is 9.15 and 95% pressure is 13.78. My question is whether changing the min pressure could be dangerous or not recommended for any reason.

Not being able to get enough air can't be all that helpful, either. It's not "dangerous"......it's only AIR.

Based on the Sleepyhead reports, I would suggest moving your minimum up to about 12 cm. You're spending most of your time around that pressure anyway. You MAY want to move up a little slowly, but that depends on what you feel is your air intake tolerance. I had no problem with a pressure of 10 to start.


Den

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