They are all relevant but the main graphs for night by night evaluation are the ones that I show in my report. The others are more long term trend stuff and really don't matter much unless you have other lung problems or health issues. Tidal volume or minute ventilation vary so much even within an individual that we can't give an overall "normal" based on these reports.hton wrote:Ok, so, just to make it clear: which graphs are relevant with CPAP?
Large sudden spikes that are brief in duration (don't last very long) could be from repositioning the mask or getting up to pee and removing the mask or unhooking the mask.hton wrote:But how do I know what is causing the spike? I am not knowing what I am doing, because I am sleeping
What does it apply that the aren't prolonged? What 'kind' of leaks would these be, then, as opposed to other sorts of leaks that are prolonged?
A leak is a leak whether you are awake or asleep..prolonged means lasting a long time.
If you had a leak of say 50 L/min that is twice what we want to see but if it only lasted a couple of minutes it isn't the end of the world. Now if you had that same 50 L/min leak lasting an hour or two then obviously you have an issue.
I have an example of a night where I had massive leaks..you might want to read it and see the images and I think it will help clarify things. I pretty much slept through those leaks.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=76445&p=698087&hili ... ne#p698087
My only comment here for what they told you....Idiots.hton wrote:Oh, btw, the DME told me I can't get an APAP because they are for central apneas only (I thought it was exactly the opposite, you shouldn't use an APAP with central apnea). And the doctor told me I can't get an APAP because of all the ' contraindications' (don't use it with heart problems, but I don't have any), and aside from that he said ' the lower the pressure the better, if it means you have apneas left that the CPAP machine doesn't attack where the APAP would'.
Minor reduction in air flow (breathing) that doesn't meet the criteria for either hyponea or apnea.hton wrote:What is flow limitation? I
Your questions about Avi's report.. his leak line is near 24 L/Min. It appears straight so it looks good but it is high leak. Remember ResMed machines report only excess leak. Even though the line is straight doesn't make it automatically good. A non straight line that stays below 10 L/min line is a better leak line.hton wrote: I would like to have your leak graph score, btw Final questions on your graph:
A. Why do you still have all these events while you are on an APAP? (You can see, I am still a complete noob)
B. What do the numbers next to these events mean?
For Avi...this is a good report if you compare it to his past reports. It is unrealistic goal to aspire to have zero events.
Numbers next to each event are how long the event lasted in seconds.
Use the mask that you sleep the best with..it doesn't matter what mask I use or Avi uses or John Doe uses..it only matters which mask lets you sleep the best.
We don't know that APAP will do anything better. It is nice to have the option to try auto mode though because it would clear up that "what if" in your mind. You are likely thinking "I feel decent and my numbers are decent but APAP make me even better?" because you read so much about APAPs and "get one so you have the best" but it isn't always the best thing to have. Some people find the pressure variations in auto mode highly disturbing. Some people don't have a problem with the pressures.hton wrote:What will the APAP do better?
Quite honestly based on your reports that I saw...you are likely going to have problems establishing a need for APAP especially with the idiotic view that your DME and doctors have. If you really want an APAP to try you most likely will have to buy one on your own and try it. It can be done.
I saw that one hour with the high AHI...to 25 that was a fluke hour. Most of the time you are nowhere near that and I suspect that those were either awake events scored or something really rare. Why did it happen? We don't know...heck we don't even know that they were real or not. When I see something that markedly different from all the other hours I suspect some type of artifact..like awake events.hton wrote:Could I ask: on May 1 you see the AHI suddenly shooting up to 25, although the mask is on. How is this possible for it to become so high? And, in addition, is this to be prevented with an APAP?
One of our forum members just yesterday posted an ugly looking report with a huge number of events within about an hour and she remembers she was awake due to foot cramps during that time frame. She had left the mask on so machine was working but it was recording events that were really awake events because we breath must more ragged while awake and the machine gets fooled. It doesn't know if you are awake or not.
Personally since that one episode with high AHI is not something you see all the time...I would just ignore it. Sometimes we don't have answers to what caused something other than my "it was aliens messing with my machine" thing. We look for general trends with these reports and can't base our whole treatment on what happened during a fluke hour.
So....with all this..you say you feel better and you are wanting to have your therapy be the "best it can be" and you are wondering if APAP would be better? There is no way to know. It might and it might not.
On paper...your reports are quite acceptable. Other than the leak thing there really isn't much to work on. To help stabilize the leak line so you can evaluate it without bathroom breaks...turn off your machine before you remove the mask..that way the machine won't be scoring the leak that occurs when you remove the mask and leave the machine on.
