AHI # questions

So I've got 4 nights on the M series Pro.

I poked around the menus this morning. It's giving me an AHI 7 day average of 3.6. That seems high? The first night with the leaky Comfortfull 2 , it read almost 5..

The "leak rate" is showing 28 or something like that... I know the mask is designed to leak... so, how do I know how much is leaking out where it's not supposed to? Is there a "designed leak" number I need to subtract off to get my "bad leak" number?

Thanks,

JQP

Here is the link to leak rates
http://www.internetage.com/cpapinfo/leak-rates-1.html

Your mask is close to the ComfortFull, You find the cross between your pressure and mask, that is the normal leak rate, higher than that it you. Jim

I used that mask at 15 cm. 33 to 35 LPM was where I ran, Ahi was good, avg under 1.5.

jqp wrote:So I've got 4 nights on the M series Pro.

I poked around the menus this morning. It's giving me an AHI 7 day average of 3.6. That seems high? The first night with the leaky Comfortfull 2 , it read almost 5..

The "leak rate" is showing 28 or something like that... I know the mask is designed to leak... so, how do I know how much is leaking out where it's not supposed to? Is there a "designed leak" number I need to subtract off to get my "bad leak" number?

Thanks,

JQP

What's your pressure? You might need just a tad bit more to get your AHI lower. However, if you just started on the Quattro, you might need a bit more time to get that to reflect in the 7-day numbers.
I'm at 12 cm and get a leak rate in the low 30's with my Quattro. By doing a few wraps of Teflon tape on both ends of the elbow, I got my leak rate down from the high 30's.
There should be a graph in (I think) the user manual that SHOULD have come with the mask.

Den

I'm at 13. Wrapping the elbow with Teflon tape was the first thing I did as that joint leaked like crazy.

JQP

jqp wrote:I'm at 13. Wrapping the elbow with Teflon tape was the first thing I did as that joint leaked like crazy.

JQP

Well, it sounds like you're probably "good to go" in that category. (depending on whether you've been using it for the full 7 nights for the average)

I've read postings where the LCD readings can be somewhat skewed, but since I don't have an M Series machine, I can't comment from personal experience.

Sometimes it takes a bit for the AHI numbers to drop. Heck, mine are still dropping.....and/or at least they're becoming more consistent.

Den

jqp wrote:It's giving me an AHI 7 day average of 3.6. That seems high?

What makes you think it is "high"?

Cheers,

Bill

Well, it seemed high to me because I thought the whole point of this CPAP exercise was to make them go away.

My AHI in my sleep study was only 11 or so... pretty low, but they told me they each lasted a LONG time, which took my O2 levels down to 80%.

I question that AHI number anyway, because I know I slept a total of an hour and a half or so.... the sleep study says I slept for 4.5 hours and that it took me 29 minutes to fall asleep. I know for certain I started at the clock for at least 3 hours before I drifted off.

JQP

jqp wrote:Well, it seemed high to me because I thought the whole point of this CPAP exercise was to make them go away.

The point of CPAP is to get your AHI into the normal sleep range, which is 5 or lower. Once you are in the normal range, there is no particular additional medical efficacy that has been able to convincingly demonstrated from being at 0 instead of being at somewhere else in the 0 to 5 range.

Some participants here seem to take it as a personal challenge to achieve a 0 AHI but there is no particular physical medical benefit arising from that.

An AHI of 3.6 is fine.

Cheers,

Bill

Ah... as soon as I get my card reader I hope to be able to see if the Apnea's have shortened up as well. 3.6 apneas that last a few seconds sounds a whole lot better than 11 that last for 30 seconds.

JQP

billbolton wrote:

jqp wrote:Well, it seemed high to me because I thought the whole point of this CPAP exercise was to make them go away.

The point of CPAP is to get your AHI into the normal sleep range, which is 5 or lower. Once you are in the normal range, there is no particular additional medical efficacy that has been able to convincingly demonstrated from being at 0 instead of being at somewhere else in the 0 to 5 range.

Some participants here seem to take it as a personal challenge to achieve a 0 AHI but there is no particular physical medical benefit arising from that.

An AHI of 3.6 is fine.

Cheers,

Bill

I'm not sure why there would NOT be a benefit to achieve the lowest AHI possible.
If those apneas and hypopneas are lengthy and causing desaturations, it should be beneficial to try to eliminate them.
Achieving ZEROS consistently is unrealistic, but there's nothing wrong with tweaking your therapy to the best it can be......and only YOU can know what is possible by monitoring your therapy over time.

Den

billbolton wrote:

jqp wrote:Well, it seemed high to me because I thought the whole point of this CPAP exercise was to make them go away.

The point of CPAP is to get your AHI into the normal sleep range, which is 5 or lower. Once you are in the normal range, there is no particular additional medical efficacy that has been able to convincingly demonstrated from being at 0 instead of being at somewhere else in the 0 to 5 range.

Some participants here seem to take it as a personal challenge to achieve a 0 AHI but there is no particular physical medical benefit arising from that.

An AHI of 3.6 is fine.

Cheers,

Bill

For the readings on a Resmed, you may be correct, as their data seems to score higher.

With Remstar, I can feel the difference in treatment between AHI 1 and AHI 3. If I run over AHI 3 for a few days, I get into the afternoon energy slump.

I stopped the 431 mask because of that and went back to the ComfortFull, because of a doubling of AHI with the 431. The 431 was a more comfortable mask, but I don't do this for comfort, I do it for results. Jim

Goofproof wrote:For the readings on a Resmed, you may be correct, as their data seems to score higher.

The "normal range" commonly quoted (and which I have explicitly used above) is that established by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, which a lot of sleep labs align to. If the Respironics AHI scoring isn't lining up reasonably well with that scale, it seems that there is a significant disconnect happening between diagnoisis and treatment for Respironics users!

Cheers,

Bill

One last comment on this subject.

You have to assume that all of these companies that make these machines that record sleep statistics did extensive parallel testing in sleep lab settings to get their scoring of actual events as close as possible.

WHY and WHAT differences between the different brands' scoring programs and algorithms is what makes for lengthy and interesting conversations on these forums.....

Den