A-Flex vs C-Flex

Does anyone know the difference between A-Flex and C-Flex CPAP?

There are probably literally HUNDREDS of posts on here with that same question. Just do a search for it and you'll find the different threads. My M-Series has both and I've tried both and most definitely like the A-flex better. Seems MUCH more natural to me. You'll find that MANY people on here don't like it though. I think it's just a matter of personal preference. I think it's a different algorithm and probably just fits certain poeple a little better than some. Just my opinion though.

Tracy

Stephan,

Welcome to the Forum!!

Have you checked out the little yellow lightbulb at the top of the page? Click on that and it will take you to a lot of information regarding all things CPAP. It's a great educational start for any one who is recently diagnosed with Sleep apnea. Lots of good reading.

Bev

Thank you both and sorry to be a pain poster!

You're not a pain poster, there is just a LOT more information on here and under the information part of this site than I could even begin to tell you. Just want to make sure you get good information, lol. Welcome.

Tracy

You are not a pain poster. I am just not very good at figuring out how to find the answer and post it here. There is a good search engine on this forum on th etop left. When I was new here, I started searching for answers and found myself glued to the computer for hours and hours every day, reading all the information I could find on my condition. I still do it. And I have to keep doing it because I can't remember what I read last month or last week. A lot of brain damage over the last 50 years. YOu are young. You caught it early and can have hope of a normal life ahead of you. Do you have the software to read your SMart card? Do you know if your therapy is working for you?

Bev

Outasync thanks

I have the software but don't know how to understand it so i don't know if it's working right. I will have to learn! Thanks again )

YOu can post a page of your report here and there wil be people who will teach you how to read it. Once you know what you are looking for, you can tweak your therapy to be more effective for you. Your original prescription was probably based on one night in a lab and may not have been the way you usually sleep. Lots of people, myself included, have been helped by members of this forum who understand these things better than I do.

Bev

I shifted from C-Flex to A-Flex last night. I still can tell very little difference in breathing comfort. Someone was saying that C-Flex backs off too much for them and I do tend to agree that A-Flex seems to keep the pressure up a little better, and that I do like. My numbers have been horrible (> 10 AHI) with a FFM and I think it's pressure related and C-Flex was compounding that (complete speculation here, I'll try to keep the noise down... ). I haven't used a FFM for a couple nights because I wanted to get my AHI numbers back down but I'm going to give it another go with A-Flex and a 10-14 range (titrated to 10...).

If you go to the respironics web site, they talk about A-Flex vs C-Flex. It makes no sense to me, and their charts they show are meaningless to me. I guess I just don't get it...

tdm5032c wrote:There are probably literally HUNDREDS of posts on here with that same question. Just do a search for it and you'll find the different threads. My M-Series has both and I've tried both and most definitely like the A-flex better. Seems MUCH more natural to me. You'll find that MANY people on here don't like it though. I think it's just a matter of personal preference. I think it's a different algorithm and probably just fits certain poeple a little better than some. Just my opinion though.

Tracy

Newbie here - I thought of asking same question even though it is covered in the collective wisdom section. I did do a search using both 'search' and search tags' - inserting "c-flex vs. a-flex" and got zero hits. Sorry to be off topic but as a newbie, seems the search function sometimes quirky?

Or......
You can go to the manufacturer's site and read about it there.

http://cflex.respironics.com/

http://aflex.respironics.com/


Den

They are both just "exhale relief" comfort settings that try to make exhaling feel more "normal" in the face of all that extra pressure.

When I first looked at the graphs on the Respironics site, I have to admit I wasn't really sure what the heck they were supposed to be showing me. They certainly made no sense to me 3 weeks ago, when I was in an untreated mental fog. Now that I've thought about it some, let me see if I have it right.

C-Flex:
There are two matched graphs here. The top is the flow of air, as you breathe in and out. The bottom is the pressure supplied by the machine. These graphs are split up by vertical lines marking periods of inhale and exhale.

If you look at the portion of the graphs under "Typical P", the top graph shows a hump of you inhaling while the bottom graph shows the CPAP pressure to be steady while you are inhaling.

If you look at the next section of the graph under "atient Flow", the top graph shows you exhaling while the bottom graph shows you that C-Flex lowers the pressure when you start to exhale. No C-flex, would mean that the bottom pressure line would always stay the same along that dotted line, but the dips in pressure at the beginning of exhale represent C-Flex setting 1, 2, and 3.

In summary, C-Flex lowers the pressure when you start to exhale.



Bi-Flex:
I'm going to go ahead and throw Bi-Flex in, because it's the same graphing style and it leads into A-Flex.

Our top flow graph is the same here, showing periods of inhale and exhale. But now the bottom graph show two pressure setting of BiPap, the IPAP (inhale pressure) and the EPAP (exhale pressure).

If you look at the EPAP line, it looks very similar to CPAP line in C-Flex. At your exhale under "atient Flow", it reduces the pressure when you start to exhale.

But if you look at the inhalation under "Typical P", you notice that it also lowers the pressure at the end of your inhale.

In summary, Bi-Flex starts to ease off the pressure at the end of your inhale and keeps it eased off at the beginning of your exhale to try to make the whole transition from inhaling to exhaling smoother and more natural.



A-Flex:
Now in the A-Flex graph, they change their graph style, which is confusing. But just like Bi-Flex, you can see that it is dipping the pressure right before and right after you start to exhale, to try to smooth that transition.




Conclusion:
Both C-Flex and A-Flex lower the pressure a little to help exhaling feel more natural. C-Flex only lowers it as you "start to exhale", but A-Flex jumps in a touch earlier and starts to lower it right "before you start to exhale". The whole purpose of both is to smoothly lower pressure when you exhale for more natural breathing, without snapping the pressure up and down on you in a teeth-rattling, unsettling way.

TSSleepy wrote:They are both just "exhale relief" comfort settings that try to make exhaling feel more "normal" in the face of all that extra pressure.

When I first looked at the graphs on the Respironics site, I have to admit I wasn't really sure what the heck they were supposed to be showing me. They certainly made no sense to me 3 weeks ago, when I was in an untreated mental fog. Now that I've thought about it some, let me see if I have it right.

C-Flex:
There are two matched graphs here. The top is the flow of air, as you breathe in and out. The bottom is the pressure supplied by the machine. These graphs are split up by vertical lines marking periods of inhale and exhale.

If you look at the portion of the graphs under "Typical P", the top graph shows a hump of you inhaling while the bottom graph shows the CPAP pressure to be steady while you are inhaling.

If you look at the next section of the graph under "atient Flow", the top graph shows you exhaling while the bottom graph shows you that C-Flex lowers the pressure when you start to exhale. No C-flex, would mean that the bottom pressure line would always stay the same along that dotted line, but the dips in pressure at the beginning of exhale represent C-Flex setting 1, 2, and 3.

In summary, C-Flex lowers the pressure when you start to exhale.



Bi-Flex:
I'm going to go ahead and throw Bi-Flex in, because it's the same graphing style and it leads into A-Flex.

Our top flow graph is the same here, showing periods of inhale and exhale. But now the bottom graph show two pressure setting of BiPap, the IPAP (inhale pressure) and the EPAP (exhale pressure).

If you look at the EPAP line, it looks very similar to CPAP line in C-Flex. At your exhale under "atient Flow", it reduces the pressure when you start to exhale.

But if you look at the inhalation under "Typical P", you notice that it also lowers the pressure at the end of your inhale.

In summary, Bi-Flex starts to ease off the pressure at the end of your inhale and keeps it eased off at the beginning of your exhale to try to make the whole transition from inhaling to exhaling smoother and more natural.



A-Flex:
Now in the A-Flex graph, they change their graph style, which is confusing. But just like Bi-Flex, you can see that it is dipping the pressure right before and right after you start to exhale, to try to smooth that transition.




Conclusion:
Both C-Flex and A-Flex lower the pressure a little to help exhaling feel more natural. C-Flex only lowers it as you "start to exhale", but A-Flex jumps in a touch earlier and starts to lower it right "before you start to exhale". The whole purpose of both is to smoothly lower pressure when you exhale for more natural breathing, without snapping the pressure up and down on you in a teeth-rattling, unsettling way.

Yes you have it correct. Some folks have a difficult time with the AFLEX because of that earlier jump/headstart. They begin to stack their breaths trying to keep up with the machine. The trick is to just not think about your breathing and just breathe naturally and the machine will adjust to YOUR breathing pattern rather than you trying to adjust to the machine's timing of exhalation relief.

DreamStalker wrote:

TSSleepy wrote:They are both just "exhale relief" comfort settings that try to make exhaling feel more "normal" in the face of all that extra pressure.

When I first looked at the graphs on the Respironics site, I have to admit I wasn't really sure what the heck they were supposed to be showing me. They certainly made no sense to me 3 weeks ago, when I was in an untreated mental fog. Now that I've thought about it some, let me see if I have it right.

C-Flex:
There are two matched graphs here. The top is the flow of air, as you breathe in and out. The bottom is the pressure supplied by the machine. These graphs are split up by vertical lines marking periods of inhale and exhale.

If you look at the portion of the graphs under "Typical P", the top graph shows a hump of you inhaling while the bottom graph shows the CPAP pressure to be steady while you are inhaling.

If you look at the next section of the graph under "atient Flow", the top graph shows you exhaling while the bottom graph shows you that C-Flex lowers the pressure when you start to exhale. No C-flex, would mean that the bottom pressure line would always stay the same along that dotted line, but the dips in pressure at the beginning of exhale represent C-Flex setting 1, 2, and 3.

In summary, C-Flex lowers the pressure when you start to exhale.



Bi-Flex:
I'm going to go ahead and throw Bi-Flex in, because it's the same graphing style and it leads into A-Flex.

Our top flow graph is the same here, showing periods of inhale and exhale. But now the bottom graph show two pressure setting of BiPap, the IPAP (inhale pressure) and the EPAP (exhale pressure).

If you look at the EPAP line, it looks very similar to CPAP line in C-Flex. At your exhale under "atient Flow", it reduces the pressure when you start to exhale.

But if you look at the inhalation under "Typical P", you notice that it also lowers the pressure at the end of your inhale.

In summary, Bi-Flex starts to ease off the pressure at the end of your inhale and keeps it eased off at the beginning of your exhale to try to make the whole transition from inhaling to exhaling smoother and more natural.



A-Flex:
Now in the A-Flex graph, they change their graph style, which is confusing. But just like Bi-Flex, you can see that it is dipping the pressure right before and right after you start to exhale, to try to smooth that transition.




Conclusion:
Both C-Flex and A-Flex lower the pressure a little to help exhaling feel more natural. C-Flex only lowers it as you "start to exhale", but A-Flex jumps in a touch earlier and starts to lower it right "before you start to exhale". The whole purpose of both is to smoothly lower pressure when you exhale for more natural breathing, without snapping the pressure up and down on you in a teeth-rattling, unsettling way.

Yes you have it correct. Some folks have a difficult time with the AFLEX because of that earlier jump/headstart. They begin to stack their breaths trying to keep up with the machine. The trick is to just not think about your breathing and just breathe naturally and the machine will adjust to YOUR breathing pattern rather than you trying to adjust to the machine's timing of exhalation relief.[/quote]

That's exactly me, you are 100% correct DreamStalker, I have been on cpap since august of 2007, I am still stacking those breaths and I keep switching back and forth from c-flex to a-flex, I just can't seem to train myself to "shine the machine on and take those much needed NORMAL BREATHS"! I have trained myself to do lots of thing since being on cpap therapy but that is indeed the hardest thing I have tried thus far and am still fighting it, shoot hopefully someday soon I will learn to relax and stop fighting the air...

Welcome to a great Forum, Stephan. You're in good hands here

Thanks TSSleepy for taking the time to explain CFlex, IPAP/EPAP & AFlex in a very understandable way. You are a great teacher!

Joy