POLL: Do You Have a Narrow or Wide Xpap Pressure Range (ed)

Hi Everybody

This my first poll, so I hope I get it right.

First of all, the best description I have found of what cmH2O means is at -
http://smart-sleep-apnea.blogspot.com/
with thankful acknowledgement to Mile High Sleeper, who, as Rested Gal said recently, has oodles of good useful information.

And for some definitions -
cpap means http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&c ... d=0CA0QkAE
Good description of cpap and apap at https://www.cpap.com/cpap-faq/Machines.html

Xpap is a generic term which includes all cpap, apap and bi-level machines.

I usually set my apap at 11 - 13 cmH2O, and with that setting I have had the best results so far (AHi, including Sandman centrals, of 2.0. But I am still experimenting every now and then.

So I am wondering if forum members mostly use a narrow pressure setting, as I do, or maybe most use a wider, or a much wider, setting.
eg my setting of 11 - 13 cmH2O, would be a range of 2 in the table.
A setting of 5 - 15 cmH2O would be a range of 10.
and so on......................

So the number on the poll I call a "range" is the number of units of cmH2O between your low and high pressure setting.

As most of us do our own pressure settings, any posts on how you got to your range would be of interest. I got to mine by 12 months of experimenting with different ranges, for 7 to 10 days on each setting. Cpap also works well for me; any setting from 11.0 to 12.0 cmH2O gives an AHi of less than 3.0.

Didn't have room for the usual "this is a stupid poll", but any comments are welcome (sort of ).

cheers

Mars

PS. I was going to ask JNK to do the poll for me, but his receptionist tells me he is all booked up until the Northern Winter, so we are going to have to lower the poll creation standards for this one.

PPS - In my extensive research for this poll I came across the following -

http://www.medcompare.com/matrix/2577/C ... hines.html
http://www.tagamed.com/cpapmeter.html

and for the rocket scientists among us -

http://www.lexingtonpulmonary.com/educa ... gmech.html

I didn't pick the 5 cm range. The sleep doctors did. First titration IPAP 13, EPAP 8. Second titration IPAP 10, EPAP 5. Go figure. Third titration didn't sleep long enough so was given a "by guess and by gosh" of IPAP 17, EPAP 8, PS ... you guessed it ... 5 cms for PS.

My range is 10-12, with using the S9 AutoSet for a month. My 95% pressure is 11.6, and my maximum sometimes hits 12, but I don't want to raise my maximum because of aerophagia. My OAI is usually 0-.3, so I'm happy with those results, and I'd rather live with a few apneas a night.

I guess 5 or 6 range is maybe a moderate range....

Prescribed an APAP (ResMed) with 6-12 range.

Split night study yielded "no addtional improvement at 8" .....but it was a split night and they left me sleeping to the last minute to get enough time in!!

I hypop/desat much more than I have actual apneas...and that is usually a positional thing, the apneas.

My actual is often at or below 9 or 10ish on the LCD stats.

I am now set at 6.8 to 13 because I hit top at 12 a few times and woke my self up with a gasp for breath. I set it at 13 and told my doc after. The 6.8 is more recent as there are days that 6 seemed too low, and honestly, my stats and detailed reports show I settle at higher than 6 even without any events.

J

I've been using straight CPAP since beginning therapy just over six months ago. My titrated pressure (based on not many hours of sleep) was 6. I've experimented with pressure settings between 6 and 9 so far, and my machine is currently set at 7.6. Results have been very good, although variable.

I do intend to purchase an S9 Autoset one of these days (please send me a PM if you know of a good price). Because my sleep apnea is highly positional, I believe that I could benefit from an APAP machine that can vary pressure in response to changing needs. With the APAP, I'm thinking that I'll probably start out with a pressure range of 6-11, see how that goes, and then adjust from there.

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packitin wrote:Mine is at: 8.2 - 12.2
I have no idea why. Just "messing around" until I hid upon the range, by trial and error.
My 2-year average AHI is 3.4 and average pressure is 9.2. Average nightly use - 4.29 hours.
(I'm still not used to cpap, and struggle to keep my mask on - this after 6 years or so. Looking
forward to the implantable Inspire II device and more otorhinolaryngological-advanced technology)

You might go to your sleep Doctor and see if BiPAP is an option many people do better on BiPAP after struggling with CPAP, Just a non invasive idea. Good luck.

Mars, good poll! I'm really interested in this subject. Hubby is sleeping at a range of 10.5-13 so I guess that would be 2 1/2? His titration was 13 and we tried all different auto ranges with terrible results. We finally went to cpap=12cms and stayed with it for a year with good numbers and feeling well. Recently we tried auto again and his 90% is usually 10-11. It seems to me that as he adjusted to his therapy and began sleeping better, he needs less pressure.

My pressure 13 to 15 Cm, why so narrow, because it works best, and I have no problems with the pressure, in fact less pressure seems to be harder to deal with. Jim

XPAP, is generic for all forms of PAP, so as to say covers whichever type you use. Jim "X" as in unknown!

Titrated @ 10, CPAP set to 11, lost 50#s, doc loaned me APAP & Nonin pulseox (amazing how much better I sleep with APAP!), pressure reduced to 9, became intolerant of straight pressure & started losing therapy air, switched to Hybrid, fought & lost battle with insurance to get an APAP deemed medically necessary as my daytime sleepiness was getting pretty bad, bought AutoSet II pressure set 6-15 (no evidence of centrals in PSG), slowly changed to 7-15. Average 95thcentile since starting APAP is 10.4, max 11.4, AHI running 1-1.2 higher with pollen/Spring allergies and my variable congestion.

Slinky wrote:I didn't pick the 5 cm range. The sleep doctors did. First titration IPAP 13, EPAP 8. Second titration IPAP 10, EPAP 5. Go figure. Third titration didn't sleep long enough so was given a "by guess and by gosh" of IPAP 17, EPAP 8, PS ... you guessed it ... 5 cms for PS.

Same here...sleep doctor first picked 10-15 and then bumped it up to 12-17. Now that I have lost over 30 pounds I am pretty consistently staying near the 12 setting so they will probably move it back to 10-15 at my next visit. Even though I can I am refraining from changing the pressure settings myself since me insurance is paying some of the bill.

Being on an ASV gives me an odd setting. I picked 7-8, but actually, it's 4-8.

The minimum span between my EPAP and my MinIPAP is 4; the maximum span between my EPAP and my MaxIPAP is 8.