[Equipment] Constant air blowing out through the vents

[Finny333]

Hello.

First message so if this has been asked and solved elsewhere please let me know.

I have a problem - my wife!    She has been complaining since I got my new ResMed Airsense 10 Autoset last year, replacing a previous version of another ResMed machine, saying that she feels it blowing cold air constantly out through the vent where the air comes out of the ResMed pillows mask. I have also noticed that the air seems to be constantly blowing - or, at least, I notice it when it starts, when I wake up during the night and when I wake up in the morning. It never seems to be on low pressure and always on high and this never seemed to happen with my previous maching, which only increased the pressure, I presume, when it was needed.

Here are the details, if they help:

Device Settings
Therapy Mode: AutoSet 
EPR: RAMP_ONLY 
EPR Level: 1.0 cmH2O
EPR Enable: ON 
EPR Patient Enable: ON 
Ramp Time: 25.0 Minutes
Essentials: ON 
Response: STANDARD 
Minimum Pressure: 4.0 cmH2O
Maximum Pressure: 20.0 cmH2O

Pressure - cmH2O
Median: 5.5 
95th Percentile: 10.8 
Maximum: 13.4

Leak - L/min
Median: 0.0 
95th Percentile: 6.0 
Maximum: 18.0

Respiratory Indices - events/hr
Apnea Index: 0.8 
Hypopnea Index: 0.4 
AHI: 1.2

Obstructive: 0.7 Central: 0.0 Unknown: 0.0
% Time in CSR: 0.0

Should I maybe adjust the pressure settings? Or are there any other recommendations? 
Thanks in advance for any help in this - my wife will be very pleased!

John

[staceyburke]

There are no settings on the machine that will help. Some masks do blow a lot of air and some have air that is dispersed much better. I own a ResMed P30i that seems NOT to have a lot of air discharged. I did own a dreamwear mask that just had a slit to expel air and it had a very strong blast of air coming out.  DO NOT block the exhaust port it gets rid of the CO2. But you could put a light cloth covering the port.

[Sleeprider]

Switch to the Resmed Airfit P10 nasal pillows. No jet of air will vent. Your pressure settings should be optimized to keep pressure variation within reason. It is disruptive to sleep to have constantly changing pressure. We can certainly tell more with a detail chart than the summary you provided but your results sure seem good with a low AHI. I think getting a quieter mask like the P10 and increasing minimum pressure will help. You might want to use more EPR full-time if flow limitations are present.

[Finny333]

OK, Stacey, thanks - that could be helpful.

I forgot to mention, though, that she also complains about the noise of the air rushing out! More difficult to solve, maybe.

[Finny333]

Thanks for the reply.

The only charts I have been able to produce from the ResScan program (having only downloaded it yesterday) are these. I have seen line graphs in other posts on this site but cannot see how to produce them, and I have no information given under 'Detailed Data'.
Hopefully I can paste the ones I have here now or attach them. Let's try...

   

[Crimson Nape]

The reason you can't produce the line graphs is because we are using OSCAR (download link in the name) and not ResScan for sleep analysis.   You can find the download at the top of every page here. For safety, do not download OSCAR from any other site other than here. You can have both ResScan and OSCAR installed on your computer.

[Finny333]

Here are some charts from OSCAR:

---

Two more:

[Sleeprider]

I would really like to see a graph formatted as described in this link. http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php...ganization

What I am looking at is an extremely poorly optimized cpap machine leaving you with a lot of obstruction and flow limitation. Here is my recommendation, but PLEASE provide the format in charts in that link.

Mode: Autoset Standard
Minimum Pressure: 8.0
Maximum Pressure 20.0
EPR: ON Full-Tim
EPR setting 3
Essentials: Plus

[Finny333]

OK, thanks for the information about settings, which I will try out this weekend.

Here is the graph as requested but I couldn't get it to show all the information on the left sidebar as shown in the instructions page you linked to:

[Sleeprider]

Your results look pretty darn good in terms of AHI. The suggested changes to settings, especially using EPR will help to stabilize the pressure by eliminating the sporadic flow limitations that is driving the pressure fluctuations. By stabilizing pressure and having the comfort of EPR, you should sleep better and be more comfortable. Worth a try anyway. After seeing the chart, we can do something a bit less drastic.
Autoset mode
minimum pressure 7.0
Maximum pressure 12.0
EPR full time at 2.

Your graph looks fine, and the vertical space that will show up depends on your screen resolution and view settings. On my screen, I can hover the cursor over the left column and zoom or unzoom using a pinch move on my touchpad. You can also try using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + or Ctrl - and tif using a mouse, the scroll wheel while holding the Ctrl key.