Total Average Leak Rate on PR System One (Spiky Graphs!)

Last two nights have been a bit spiky again. 33% total leak and 36%. I will say that I had a lot of straight line activity two nights ago for about 2 hours or so where I show no leaks at all. I may try the medical paper tape tonight while I am waiting for the chin strap to come. I am having doubts about the chin strap the more I read.

DadscreepyCPAPmask wrote:Last two nights have been a bit spiky again. 33% total leak and 36%.

Units for the total leak graph and average leak figure in Encore Viewer are Liters per Minute. They are NOT given in terms of percentages. Think for a second: What would a "total average leak of 33% mean? 33 percent of what? whole "thing" would you be measuring?

robysue wrote:

DadscreepyCPAPmask wrote:Last two nights have been a bit spiky again. 33% total leak and 36%.

Units for the total leak graph and average leak figure in Encore Viewer are Liters per Minute. They are NOT given in terms of percentages. Think for a second: What would a "total average leak of 33% mean? 33 percent of what? whole "thing" would you be measuring?

Ok, but my total average leak of 33 to 36 means "not very good". That is the bottom line then, right?

No, that's not true. You have to remember that the Respironics xpaps list total leak. This includes the leak that is expected due to the air flowing into and out of your mask. After all, if air only flowed into your mask and never out of it, you would have a huge balloon on your face! You have to manually subtract out the expected leak to see what your true leak is, and you really can't get a true leak of 0. Your big issue is the spikiness of your graphs which means that there is some leakage that you should work on.

DadscreepyCPAPmask wrote:

Ok, but my total average leak of 33 to 36 means "not very good". That is the bottom line then, right?

Daddy,

Have a look at the Pressure-flow Curve for your mask in this document: http://www.resmed.com/au/assets/documen ... nz_eng.pdf

It shows how much average flow goes through the vents at typical pressures. If you pressure is 9 cm your vent flow rate is going to be about 30 lpm.

You have the software and you have the daily details report so why keep messing with averages? You could have a 10 lpm leak for half the night and a 50 lpm leak for the other half and the average would be 30 and that would look fine.

Look at the leak line in the graph and work on making it flatter.

This is what a leak rate should look like (except for the little disturbances near hour 7)

This is my actual graph from last night.

jbn3boys wrote:This is what a leak rate should look like (except for the little disturbances near hour 7)

This is my actual graph from last night.

Now you are talking boys!

No depending on mere averages for you!

Ok, this was last night with my mouth taped shut I would say this was a bit better....

jbn3boys wrote:This is what a leak rate should look like (except for the little disturbances near hour 7)

This is my actual graph from last night.

Wow! That is amazing!

Dads, my graphs look like yours of last night, never had one like jbnss

Much better, dads!

I say keep on taping!

mayondair wrote:Dads, my graphs look like yours of last night, never had one like jbnss

This is fairly new for me...it took a lot of tweaking (and getting over my denial that there was a problem). I'm really hoping I can keep it up. It is such a good feeling to know that I am getting the pressure that I am supposed to be getting!

OutaSync wrote:Much better, dads!

I say keep on taping!

Even though the taping seems to work and I plan on doing it again, it just seems so weird and drastic to me. I guess I just have to get over it.

DadscreepyCPAPmask wrote: Even though the taping seems to work and I plan on doing it again, it just seems so weird and drastic to me. I guess I just have to get over it.

I just glanced at your thread the first page and this last page so I didn't see just how long you have been using CPAP. I only saw that you joined the last of December so I am going to assume that you are fairly new.

Maybe I can offer you a glimmer of hope regarding the taping of the mouth thing.

When I first started therapy I had many reports with leaks like you first posted. Yes, I was opening my mouth. Chin straps and all sorts of homemade things to keep my mouth closed didn't help. So I taped and I tried poligrip. I didn't want to go with any full face mask. I wanted to keep using my nasal pillows. So for nearly 2 months I would secure my mouth with tape. I was able to get some really nice "minimal leak" graphs with taping.
Somewhere between the 2nd month marker and the 3rd month I started to get lazy about the taping because it was such a pain and started "forgetting". I was doing it less and less often and watching my daily reports. To my surprise my leak rates stayed down and didn't return to the pre-taping reports.

I seemed to have been able to break that mouth breathing habit. Some people do, some people don't. It all depends on the person. Maybe, just maybe you might get lucky down the road and not have to use the tape.

Pugsy,

Thanks for the comment and I guess maybe I will learn to keep my mouth closed without taping in the future. Yes I did just start CPAP in the middle of November 2010 to be more exact. Its funny, during my sleep tests you would have thought I would have been told I was mouth breathing at some point during it. If I am mouth breathing now I would think I was then too. It just makes me wonder how many other people on CPAP that do not visit these forums and just take the machine home with whatever mask they are initally given and "wing it". Most are probably not getting the most out of their therapy. Kinda sad and it certainly defeats the purpose.