Definition of Terms: lpm and Minute Volume

Ahh got it, sorry i read in haste!!

akcpapguy wrote:Ok, I understand your quest for keeping your AHI low and your desire to understand the terminology associated with your treatment. However i am slightly confused about trying to keep you minute volume low......do you have COPD and are a CO2 retainer?

Aha, now we're getting somewhere! So can you explain the connection between MV and COPD?

You crack me up Dori I'm getting the feeling you and I are becoming the forum's tag team.
Great minds think alike
Or could it be I'm being forum stalked, oh my!

If someone has COPD then their lungs are compromised. The volume or amount of air to be moved is going to be more limited with COPD. The lungs simply can't function like they should.

Todzo is really into controlling his breathing and pulse and oxygen saturation levels altered by breathing. What he is doing is way over my head and I don't want to go there. He is happy with what he is doing and he certainly is entitled to do whatever he wants.

For people like me who are just happy to know I am breathing I don't really watch the volume numbers.
I don't see the need.
The range of normals is huge and varies between male and female, short or tall, big lungs or small lungs, age, lung disease or not, heck it even varies with where we live as in altitude.
What I might do is just get an idea what is "my" normal...that is the normal that is important because my normal is going to be different from Starlette's normal if for no other reason than altitude and not even factoring in any possible size issue (body frame size). Get an idea of what my "normal" is and maybe watch things if I caught a bad cold or had asthma problems or something. Most of the time what we see are just plain ordinary normal variations in our breathing. Unless we spot a HUGE change or we know for sure we have compromised lung functions then the variations probably aren't significant.

I am short...not quite 5 ft. All my volume numbers are on the low side of "normal"...I am not very big...my lungs aren't very big..they don't hold as much air as a 6 ft man...but what I see is normal for me and what he sees for him is normal for him.

Personally I have enough to try to figure out with the reports than trying to put the volume numbers under the microscope too so I don't even go there. Way more work than I want to do so I won't. I don't see it changing cpap therapy unless I had some sort of lung disease and if I did I would likely figure it out from daytime breathing and not from numbers on the reports.

DoriC wrote:

akcpapguy wrote:Ok, I understand your quest for keeping your AHI low and your desire to understand the terminology associated with your treatment. However i am slightly confused about trying to keep you minute volume low......do you have COPD and are a CO2 retainer?

Aha, now we're getting somewhere! So can you explain the connection between MV and COPD?

Dori,

Pugsy pretty much hit the nail on the head, I have not read Todzo's post completely so I don't know what he is doing. Basically speaking you can't control your minute volume using a home CPAP/BiPAP machine, however it can be measured and reported.

akcpapguy,

The context Todzo was using that quote was from these threads:

Question about Raising Pressure (Starlette 08/01/2012, middle of page 1)
viewtopic/t80493/Question-about-Raising-Pressure.html

Re: Opinions about Self Treating Sleep Apnea Please (MrPresident 07/31/2012, bottom of page 3)
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=80463&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=lpm

Like I said, when you guys talk cpap using those term, I'm just trying to understand what those terms mean in relation to cpap.

Starlette wrote:You crack me up Dori I'm getting the feeling you and I are becoming the forum's tag team.
Great minds think alike
Or could it be I'm being forum stalked, oh my!

I love your inquiring mind Starlette but as usual Pugsy has put things in proper perspective. I think she's "politely" saying "forget about it"! It's probably TMI that will definitely lead into no man's land! I guess it might be a good idea to glance at that data occasionally to see if things look as they usually do without too much interpretation. I'm compulsive enough about AHIs, Pressures and Leaks which keeps me busy enough. That doesn't mean I won't be waiting for your next question!

I figured it out on my own:

Let me repeat Todzo's quote:
"I was happy to see your decision to lower the auto high pressure. Indeed, now that I see some of your data I think that you do have a tendency to over breath. For example, at my 200 pounds I like to see a Minute Ventilation (amount of air breathed in liters per minute (lpm)) at 6 lpm or less with the 95% under 8 lpm. To move toward that I do what I can to reduce stress, do aerobic exercise with interval training, eat anti-apnea, and train with a pulse oximeter to breath for lowest heart rate with exertion held constant."

6 lmp or less and 95% under 8lpm

See guys, I know what the definitions mean, but what I couldn't understand is "where" he and everyone was getting that information. I figured it out.
That information comes from SH on the Overview tab, which will give the average and 90% for the week. For instance, for mine this week was:

3.41 Average
4.28 90%

Now I know what you guys are talking about and where you're getting that information.

Starlette

In my opinion, much of what Todzo says runs counter to the accepted norms of apnea/CPAP practice. And to what seems right to me.

That doesn't mean he's wrong, but don't believe something is right because he says it. Don't believe it's right because I say it either. Or for that manner because your DME or doctor says it.

In particular Todzo has a mindset that low breathing rates are good for you. I think he's going way overboard on this idea.

In general, I suspect most of us would be better off with with somewhat higher minute vents and tidal volumes, but you could go overboard on that, too. There's absolutely no question that too low minute vents or tidal volumes are bad.

Understood archangle. All I was pointing out is that now I know where you guys are getting that information. That's all.
And using my information as an example that I now understand the concept.

Starlette