(11-10-2015, 11:08 PM)Charles1970 Wrote: Yes, central apneas did show up in my study. And since I'm still a bit fatigued during the day (not excessively) my doctor wants to check for narcolepsy next.
I do hope to use sleepyhead later this week. Is it true that I can program the machine myself using it (as well as access its sleep data?)
Sleepyhead displays your data in a whole lot of useful ways but it doesn't allow you to change machine settings. However that can easily be done manually - go here:
http://www.apneaboard.com/adjust-cpap-pr...tup-manual and request the clinician manual for your machine. Make sure you read and follow the instructions carefully as there are hundreds of machines listed.
Quote:Right now I see this in the data window:
Max pres 20,
epap min 4
epap max 15
ps min 3
ps max 15
bpm auto
Under 90% epap: 5.0
Avg ps - 4.5
Not sure what it means - thanks!
c
Epap is the pressure your machine applies when you're breathing out (expiratory positive airway pressure). This needs to be high enough to prevent hypopneas and obstructive apneas.
PS is pressure support - the additional pressure the machine applies when you're breathing in (IPAP = inhale PAP). This normally runs quite low, but if the machine detects a central apnea it will rapidly increase the PS (and hence the IPAP) to get you breathing again.
With a max EPAP of 15 and a max PS of 15, you could get a peak IPAP of 30 cm h2o, which is a bit of a blast. IPAP = EPAP + PS However there is also a max pressure setting (in your case 20) which prevents it going too high.
It seems your machine is only delivering a fairly low PS so I'm guessing that things are fairly under control, but still with a lot of room for improvement.
It would be really interesting to see the SleepyHead plots to work out what's really going on.
