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Aircurve 10 VAuto Settings Tweaks
#1
Aircurve 10 VAuto Settings Tweaks
For the benefit of some future (or present) Aircurve users, I thought I'd share my experience so far with tweaking settings.

I'm a new PAP user - just about one month in now. I'm using a Resmed AirCurve 10 VAuto machine. My initial settings where Min EPAP 8, Max IPAP 20, PS 4, Trigger/Cycle Medium, TiMin, TiMax default settings.

I've liked this machine from day one and, other than occasionally fighting leaks, I've taken to the hosehead lifestyle very quickly. But, there were things that could be improved, so I knew I would do some tweaking once I had enough time on the machine to have a decent sense of what to do.

Once thing I'd noticed is, especially when falling asleep, I could feel a "notch" in my breathing on the transition from IPAP to EPAP. It wasn't severe - I still fell asleep fine, but I decided this was the first thing I would tweak. So I made the following changes:

PS: 3, TiMax 2.5 (was 2.0), Cycle: High

I've got to tell you, the difference in comfort is amazing with just these tiny changes. I fall asleep more quickly and I stay asleep longer, with objectively fewer events during the night.

I'm still fighting occasional leak issues, but I know I'll get those dialed in over time. I want to encourage new users out there to stick with it. Download your data and look at it regularly. Ask questions, learn the terminology, learn the settings on your machine. Make changes - small changes, with days or weeks between changes so you can objectively and subjectively measure the effect that a change has made. Lather, rinse, repeat. Getting your optimal therapy dialed in will take time, but stick with it.
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#2
RE: Aircurve 10 VAuto Settings Tweaks
cpdaniel,
Looks like you got it dialed in nicely. Well-done
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#3
RE: Aircurve 10 VAuto Settings Tweaks
The DMEs seldom change the trigger from default.
I have set my Timin from default (0.3 sec) to 0.5 seconds to avoid a false from IPAP when there's a wiggle in my flow waveform.
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#4
RE: Aircurve 10 VAuto Settings Tweaks
I am curious. What was the "notch" in your breathing and how did you detect it? Did you make the changes one at a time or all three at once?

Happy to hear that your CPAP adventure is going well.

Best Regards,

PaytonA

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#5
RE: Aircurve 10 VAuto Settings Tweaks
Hi cpdaniel,
It’s great to hear that you are adjusting so well to CPAP therapy and getting your settings find tuned to meet your needs.
GREAT JOB, keep up the good work.
trish6hundred
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#6
RE: Aircurve 10 VAuto Settings Tweaks
(12-20-2015, 12:28 PM)PaytonA Wrote: I am curious. What was the "notch" in your breathing and how did you detect it? Did you make the changes one at a time or all three at once?

I would feel a sudden decrease in pressure towards the end of inspiration as it switched from IPAP to EPAP. The change in pressure was so abrupt - notch was the best word I could come up with to describe the feeling. Bump maybe?

I thought about trying things one at a time, but I did all three at once. Might try raising PS back to 4 after a few nights - see if I feel any different in the morning.

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#7
RE: Aircurve 10 VAuto Settings Tweaks
What are your inspiration and expiration times? Sleepyhead reports this along with tidal volume. If you have a particularly long inhale time, it might be possible to setup your machine to allow for that without switching. Take a look at the flow chart close-up with a zero line marked on the graph. This lets you see very clearly inhale and exhale patterns and timing. If you see a very sharp decline in inhalation pressure towards the end of a breath, that would suggest the support pressure dropping out early.
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#8
RE: Aircurve 10 VAuto Settings Tweaks
(12-20-2015, 06:17 PM)cpdaniel Wrote:
(12-20-2015, 12:28 PM)PaytonA Wrote: I am curious. What was the "notch" in your breathing and how did you detect it? Did you make the changes one at a time or all three at once?

I would feel a sudden decrease in pressure towards the end of inspiration as it switched from IPAP to EPAP. The change in pressure was so abrupt - notch was the best word I could come up with to describe the feeling. Bump maybe?

I thought about trying things one at a time, but I did all three at once. Might try raising PS back to 4 after a few nights - see if I feel any different in the morning.

Thanks, I was trying to get a better idea of what you were describing. I think that you might have only needed to increase your Ti max but you apparently got it fixed. Good going.

Best Regards,

PaytonA

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PaytonA passed away in September 2017
Click HERE to read his Memorial Thread

~ Rest in Peace ~
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#9
RE: Aircurve 10 VAuto Settings Tweaks
(12-20-2015, 09:00 PM)Sleeprider Wrote: What are your inspiration and expiration times? Sleepyhead reports this along with tidal volume. If you have a particularly long inhale time, it might be possible to setup your machine to allow for that without switching. Take a look at the flow chart close-up with a zero line marked on the graph. This lets you see very clearly inhale and exhale patterns and timing. If you see a very sharp decline in inhalation pressure towards the end of a breath, that would suggest the support pressure dropping out early.

That's why I bumped TiMax up a bit. It was set to 2.0 seconds, and my 90th percentile inspiration time is right around 2 seconds, so it didn't need to go up much to make that "notch" disappear.
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