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Section 2: Therapy Modes and Features
2.1 Device Therapy Modes
Therapy
Modes
Description
CPAP
Continuous Positive Airway Pressure; CPAP maintains a constant level of pressure throughout the breathing cycle.
S
Spontaneous Pressure Support; A Bi-level therapy mode where breaths are patient-triggered and patient-cycled.
The device triggers to IPAP (Inspiratory Positive Airway Pressure) in response to spontaneous inspiratory effort
and cycles to EPAP (Expiratory Positive Airway Pressure) during exhalation. The device also cycles a patient-
triggered breath if no patient exhalation effort is detected for 3 seconds. The level of Pressure Support delivered
is determined by the difference between the IPAP and EPAP settings (PS = IPAP - EPAP)
S/T
Spontaneous/Timed Pressure Support; A Bi-level therapy mode where each breath is patient-triggered and patient-
cycled or machine-triggered and machine-cycled. S/T mode is similar to S mode, except that the device also will
enforce a set minimum breath rate by, if necessary, providing machine (time) triggered breaths. For these breaths,
the inspiratory time is also a set value.
T
Timed Pressure Support; A Bi-level therapy mode where breaths are machine-triggered and machine-cycled. T
mode provides mandatory pressure assist with bi-level pressures. The patient’s breathing rate has no effect on the
machine rate or pressure levels. The trigger to IPAP is determined by the breath rate setting, and the cycle time is
determined by the inspiratory time setting.
PC
Pressure Control Pressure Support; A Bi-level therapy mode where each breath is patient or machine-triggered
and machine-cycled. PC mode is similar to S/T mode, except that all breaths are machine-cycled. This is a
pressure-limited, machine or patient-triggered, time-cycled mode. The cycle time is determined by the Inspiratory
Time setting.
AVAPS-AE
A novel Bi-level therapy mode that provides an automatically adjusting EPAP, Pressure Support, and back-up breath
rate.
In AVAPS-AE mode, the device monitors the patient’s upper airway resistance and automatically adjusts the
delivered EPAP required to maintain a patent airway.
In this mode, the AVAPS feature is always enabled. This allows the device to automatically adjust Pressure Support
to maintain a target tidal volume. (Refer to the description of AVAPS in Section 2.2, Therapy Features.) The
required Pressure Support is delivered above the automatic EPAP setting.
Additionally, when the Breath Rate is set to Auto, the device will automatically adjust the back-up breath rate
based on the patient’s spontaneous respiratory rate.
autoSV
The autoSV mode is similar to S mode, except that it also can deliver a machine-triggered breath if the patient
does not spontaneously breathe. In addition, the device may automatically provide pressure support to normalize
patient therapy during sleep disordered breathing events by providing pressure support levels between PS Min
setting and PS Max setting.
WARNING: The effectiveness of the A-Flex, Bi-Flex, C-Flex, C-Flex+ or AVAPS therapy features or the autoSV
mode has not been established for pediatric patients at this time.
Auto-CPAP
In Auto-CPAP mode, the device delivers therapy while automatically adjusting the pressure level to meet the
patient’s needs.
Auto-BiLevel
In Auto-BiLevel mode, the device delivers therapy with one level of output pressure during EPAP (Expiratory
Positive Airway Pressure) and a second higher level during IPAP (Inspiratory Positive Airway Pressure) while
automatically adjusting EPAP and IPAP levels to meet the patient’s needs.