PAP downloads not only provide the clinician with valuable information regarding a patient’s adherence in using their device, but understanding how to thoroughly analyze the data can also provide important insight for making treatment decisions. A CHEST 2020 session will feature a panel of sleep medicine experts who will describe where to find detailed data from a PAP download and how to use that data to determine therapy options for a patient.

The session, Case-based Learning: Difficult PAP Downloads, will take place on Sunday, October 18, at 12:30 pm CT. The session will be available for on-demand viewing 24 hours later on the virtual CHEST 2020 meeting platform through January 18.

Kara Dupuy-McCauley, MD, senior associate consultant in the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine, department of internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic, will begin the session with a discussion on how to break down and interpret the information in a PAP download.

“It’s important to know the main components of the download, one part being the patient’s compliance or how much they are using the device, which is pretty straightforward,” Dr. Dupuy-McCauley said. “The other part is the data about the therapy, which require more detailed analysis that can help us determine if the therapy we have prescribed is effective or not.”

For example, she said the download can provide information to help the clinician determine whether mask leaking is impacting the effectiveness of therapy.

“When you look at a patient’s download and you see that therapy is not effective, mask leaking is one of the most common reasons for that,” Dr. Dupuy-McCauley said. “It’s really helpful that the download gives us data about that, because if you see that the therapy is ineffective and there’s also a huge mask leak, then you know that, instead of focusing on pressure changes, to focus first on the patient and the fit of the mask before going any further.”

Delving deeper into the download data, Aneesa Das, MD, FCCP, assistant professor of internal medicine and assistant director of the Sleep Program at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, will use case-based examples to illustrate how information gleaned from the PAP download can sometimes be used to make small changes or adjustments that can have a big impact on a patient’s care.

“When a patient is still symptomatic on C-PAP, for example, the information that you can gain from a download can help you troubleshoot and identify the real cause. And sometimes it’s a very subtle cause that you can identify and fix with a tweak or slight change in pressure or a change in mask to ensure a proper fit,” Dr. Das said. “It’s really important for pulmonologists who are practicing sleep medicine to understand how much value is in the download beyond just assessing whether or not your patient is using their C-PAP regularly. It gives you a lot more information than just adherence.”