Advantage of auto-BPAP over regular BPAP for UARS?

[rbwilli]

I recently posted about my intentions to purchase a Philips Respironics Dreamstation Auto BiPAP machine to treat my possible UARS. My thought was that I could just set it on auto and it would do its thing. However, Sleeprider made what seems like a great point: Since UARS is more subtle than OSA, perhaps the machine won't be able to automatically find the best pressures for me, and I'll have to manually titrate the pressure over time anyway?

If this is true, are there any advantages to having the PR DreamStation Auto BiPAP over the BiPAP Pro for treating UARS? If not, I'll probably just get the BiPAP Pro.

Does anyone have experience treating their UARS with an auto-BiPAP machine? If so, did it require setting the pressures manually?

[PsychoMike]

Well, I can't help you on the bipap part as and EPR of 3 is plenty for me and my top end pressure is <20 cm H20, but I do use an auto machine for my UARS treatment (Resmed S9 Autoset).

I've found that the Resmed algorithm does catch the hyponeas (not full apneas, but times where my UARS has kicked in and is "getting there" toward apnea events). It may not have the best response to them (esp. when short), but it can respond if they get bad enough and I do like the Auto function for when I am having a bad night and it needs to step in.

That said, I probably did more of my own titrating / adjusting using Sleepyhead and looking for the overall reductions, rather than just letting the machine do its thing. As long as the machine is truly data capable, you should be able to do it with the Pro while saving a couple bucks. If the Auto jumps into your shopping cart, it will do the job just fine too with the added benefit of being able to help out if you have a bad night.