Average leak rate?

Hi Guys,

I'm just kind of wondering what is the average leak rate for the Mirage FX Mask. I have been wearing it for the past 2 nights, and my leak rates are as follows. 1st night: 4.79 and 2nd night: 5.45

I am not sure what the 90% leak rate means....anyone tell me? Those numbers are a bit higher @ 14 and 15.

Thanks, Jen

The PRS1 gives total leak rate, intentional plus unintentional. Intentional is the built in vent so you don't rebreathe the same air repeatedly. Unintentional is everything else.
90% leak rate is the rate at which you were at or BELOW 90% of the time being monitored.
The numbers you indicated are great barely adequate for intentional mask vent.

bwexler wrote:The numbers you indicated are great barely adequate for intentional mask vent.

those numbers, if accurate, are dangerously low. most masks are in the 20-50 range over normal operating pressures, the specs for the mirage fx in particular are on page 14:

http://www.resmed.com/content/dam/resme ... er_eng.pdf

.

Your numbers look about like mine with a ResMed AirFit N10. I've been on cpap for 7 weeks. I just had my 6 week follow-up with m sleep doc, and she was happy with all my data, including the leak rate. She said I had a good mask fit.
Leak rate - 4.56
90% leak rate - 17
Percent of time above the leak rate threshold - 0.09%

AHI is 1 (was 25 on the sleep study) and I'm sleeping & feeling great.

raftergirl wrote:Your numbers look about like mine with a ResMed AirFit N10. I've been on cpap for 7 weeks.
Leak rate - 4.56
90% leak rate - 17
Percent of time above the leak rate threshold - 0.09%

AHI is 1 (was 25 on the sleep study) and I'm sleeping & feeling great.

ah... "total leaks" is more important with the respironics machines, the 'leak rate' is a software approximation in sleepyhead.

So total leaks is running in the 40-60 range. I've been looking more at staying below that magic red line on SH. The leak rate thing is kind of confusing. But I suppose what's happening in real life is the key. My nasal mask seems to fit me well, and I don't feel air going into my eyes or leaking when I wiggle my nose very often. That's how I knew that after almost two months it was time for a new cushion. The eye & nose wiggle leaks were increasing, and a few times my mask would "sing." No where near the awful honking, squealing, and farting that happened when I tried a FFM . I picked up a new cushion from my DME yesterday, and all is good again. I've been wearing a chin strap for 6 weeks to combat dry mouth. Now I'm experimenting without it to see what happens. So far, the dry mouth is minimal, my AHI hasn't changed, and I feel fine. I hope I can ditch the chin strap???? We shall see.

Assuming you are having an average pressure of 12 cm H2O, then the editintentional leak rate for your mask is 34 Lpm.
I think you are possibly using SleepyHead as a data reporter and it may attempt to calculate the unintentional leak rate from looking at the actual data. Respironics machines report the total leak rate so it may be that your average total leak rate is something like 39 Lpm (intentional rate + unintentional rate) and that is a good number for that mask.

Not much to worry about in those numbers.

Sorry about the typo which has been changed above.

raftergirl wrote:So total leaks is running in the 40-60 range. I've been looking more at staying below that magic red line on SH.

the red line is only for resmed machines

that's going to be more clear in future versions of SH.

JDS74 wrote:Assuming you are having an average pressure of 12 cm H2O, then the unintentional leak rate for your mask is 34 Lpm.

I believe you mean "intentional" or "vent rate".