Leakage vs AHI

Hi everyone - I have a question. Would you say it is better to have low leakage and higher AHI or vice versa?

My dilemma is that with my Airfit F10 mask I had very low AHI but the leakage was getting pretty high. The mask was also becoming very uncomfortable in the middle of the night and would cause me to wake up and constantly readjust it.

I switched to my Nuance Pro nasal pillows and like last night I had AHI of 9.6 but no leakage to speak of. Does it really matter? If I feel good with a higher AHI and no leakage, should I just stick with this? I understand it is ideal to have low AHI and little to no leakage...has anyone run into a similar situation though? FYI have my pressure set to 20/20 with EPR of 3.

The purpose of low leaks is to allow the machine to treat events more efficiently and thus achieve low AHIs (below 5). Resmed says that the non intentional leaks (this is the reported leak) should be below 24 Liters/Minute for their machines. Your goal should be to have AHIs at or below 5 to maximize your treatment. Higher pressures cause more leaks. I don't know about the Airsense S10 machine but my S9 Autoset is robust enough to treat events even if the leaks rise above 24 Liters/Minute. See it here that the machine has not flagged any event as "Unknown":

High leaks and low AHI could be that the leaks are bad enough that the machine is missing flagging events.

Low leaks and higher AHI could mean a more accurate AHI.

What is the event category breakdown of that AHI of 9ish? Still mainly obstructive?

Leaks that wake a person up, no matter how big or how small, are unwanted. If the leak is low with the nasal pillow mask and you are sleeping better then use that mask. You may need a bilevel machine to get higher pressures.

My AHI on my Airsense 10 is around 1. My machine is showing a leak of around 30L/minute. Starting 4 nights after I started using the new machine, I have been waking up feeling better than I have in years. I just switched to the Airsense 10 ten days ago.

I am no expert on leaks and can't figure out what is leaking, but going by my quality of sleep and wakefulness, I am not worrying about the leak rate, since I have no idea what to do about it. Just sharing my experience, in case it may help you. Ultimately, the quality of sleep and how you feel when awake are the most important result of CPAP therapy, for me.

My AHI on my Airsense 10 is around 1. My machine is showing a leak of around 30L/minute. Starting 4 nights after I started using the new machine, I have been waking up feeling better than I have in years. I just switched to the Airsense 10 ten days ago.

I am no expert on leaks and can't figure out what is leaking, but going by my quality of sleep and wakefulness, I am not worrying about the leak rate, since I have no idea what to do about it. Just sharing my experience, in case it may help you. Ultimately, the quality of sleep and how you feel when awake are the most important result of CPAP therapy, for me.

I am going by the MyAir Resmed website, which you should also have access to. Since I have switched to the nasal pillows my leakage has been around zero. My AHI has been higher though.

You are getting bad leakage on the nasal pillows? I don't believe this should be happening.

joeljjk11 wrote:

My AHI on my Airsense 10 is around 1. My machine is showing a leak of around 30L/minute. Starting 4 nights after I started using the new machine, I have been waking up feeling better than I have in years. I just switched to the Airsense 10 ten days ago.

I am no expert on leaks and can't figure out what is leaking, but going by my quality of sleep and wakefulness, I am not worrying about the leak rate, since I have no idea what to do about it. Just sharing my experience, in case it may help you. Ultimately, the quality of sleep and how you feel when awake are the most important result of CPAP therapy, for me.

I am going by the MyAir Resmed website, which you should also have access to. Since I have switched to the nasal pillows my leakage has been around zero. My AHI has been higher though.

You are getting bad leakage on the nasal pillows? I don't believe this should be happening.

It will happen if he is breathing though his mouth.