The World’s Only Dynamic Oxygen Delivery System

The Apogee excels where Portable Oxygen Concentrators often fall short


Did you know you primarily breathe through only one nostril at a time?

The dominant nostril you inhale through naturally alternates throughout the day. This process is known as the “Nasal Cycle”.

It is believed the nasal cycle occurs to give each nostril time to rest and rehydrate.

The Apogee’s patented technology leverages the nasal cycle by detecting and delivering pulsed oxygen to your dominant nostril. This corresponds to your body’s natural breathing pattern.

This type of oxygen delivery may result in less nasal irritation, more ambulatory opportunities, and much more effective therapy.

Patient Breathing Cycle

The graph below was taken from monitoring a patient’s 8-hour breathing cycle in a university study.

If this alternate breathing pattern is common amongst most people, the Apogee with dynamic oxygen delivery may provide better therapy one nostril at a time.

Patient Breathing Cycle

Apogee Dynamic Oxygen Delivery System

The Apogee is effective for all types of patients requiring portable oxygen. Aside from the nasal cycle, the Apogee is particularly effective for patients with conditions where one nostril remains blocked — such as with a deviated septum, turbinate hypertrophy, nasal valve collapse, and sinus infection.

The Apogee Delivery System is developed with pulse delivery and settings from 1 to 6 (10mL per breath up to 60mL per breath).

Switching to the Apogee is ideal when higher liter flows are required, but you still need a long-lasting, portable system for errands, travel, exercise, and more.

Click ‘Apogee Details’ below the images to learn more about the Apogee System.

Apogee M4 Black
Black M6
The Full Apogee System

What Patients Are Saying

Art is a United States veteran and oxygen patient from St Louis, Missouri.

Watch the video clip below to hear about his experience on the Apogee.

“Within a week of switching to the Apogee, I already noticed the therapy working better, and I’m not so tired all day. I can go much farther on my walks around the neighborhood, and go twice as long without switching out cylinders. On previous oxygen systems, my pulse ox readings would record between 82 and 93. This week I visited my Doctor and had my oximeter recorded at 98! My doctor was so surprised she actually checked it twice on a different oximeter!

Richard S.

Oxygen Patient

“I enjoy knowing that I’m not wasting my oxygen to the atmosphere and thereby greatly extending the range of my portable ambulatory oxygen system. I love the Apogee.

Erik F.

USAF Retired, Oxygen Patient

“I just love the bag. I used the Apogee from 3 pm – 11 pm… And it lasted that whole time! Amazing! I did still “feel the weight” after so many hours, but NOTHING like with the POC or even smaller continuous O2 tank.”

Renee A.

Oxygen Patient

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Apogee?

The Apogee is a lightweight portable oxygen system using a compressed gas cylinder and our patented Dynamic Oxygen Delivery technology. It consists of an attractive carrying bag, a custom regulator, a patented Dynamic Nasal cannula, and Apogee Controller.

How does the Apogee’s portable oxygen system compare to portable oxygen concentrators (POC) of similar size and weight?

The Apogee is a fraction of the cost of a POC. At around 4.5 lbs., it is quieter and should have several hours more range than a similarly sized POC. In addition, the Apogee delivers a ‘uniform’ dose of oxygen to the most open nostril at nearly 100% oxygen purity. The Apogee’s volume remains the same with every breath.

POC’s with a built-in conserver deliver minute volume (a constant volume of oxygen produced each minute) and reduce the volume sent as the breath rate increases. They may only produce 82% oxygen. Because they always deliver oxygen to both nostrils — even when one is blocked — POCs may not meet the prescribed dosage.

What is Dynamic Oxygen Delivery?

Dynamic Oxygen Delivery — found only in the Apogee — is a new patented process that tracks the changes in nasal resistance and delivers oxygen only to the most open/receptive nasal passage.

The Apogee is the first device in the world to launch this technology for use by portable oxygen patients.

How does Dynamic Oxygen Delivery improve a patient’s Rx compliance?

It is critical that patients receive consistent oxygen therapy to better comply with the doctor’s prescribed oxygen flow rate. Unfortunately, with other oxygen devices used today, as much as 50% of the oxygen is wasted — which could jeopardize the therapeutic benefits of the oxygen.

How can Dynamic Oxygen Delivery reduce nasal dryness and irritation?

Because no flow is delivered to the blocked nostril during therapy, this allows time for that nostril to rest, rehydrate and repair itself. This process alternates between nostrils throughout the day.

Why do humans typically breathe through a dominant side of the nose?

Both anatomical and physiological factors account for uneven nasal airflow. Examples of fixed causes may include a deviated septum, nasal polyps, or enlarged nasal turbinates. Physiological factors may be caused by allergies, body position, and the nasal cycle. Our nasal cycle occurs throughout the day and night for periods of 20 minutes to several hours. The Apogee immediately detects which nostril is open and delivers the oxygen to that side.

Why do humans (and all mammals) have a nasal cycle?

The two most widely accepted reasons we have a nasal cycle are:

1) Keeping one nostril closed helps prevent both sides of the nose from drying out. Essentially, while we are breathing through the active nostril, the other nostril has time to rest and rehydrate.

2) Nasal cycling may improve our ability to smell, especially since some odors require a longer time to travel through the nose to be detected. Our olfactory sense allows humans to not only enjoy the scent of a flower but also to detect danger like a gas leak or food burning on the stove. For mammals, smell directly impacts their ability to track down food, find mates, and identify dangers and enemies.

How do oxygen systems using today’s standard nasal cannula differ from the cannula used by the Apogee?

Nasal cannulas are the tubes that deliver oxygen from the oxygen source to a patient’s nose. Nasal cannulas were first introduced in 1948, and until now, little has changed in their operation.

The standard nasal cannula has a single hose that separates itself into a left and right nasal prong. Studies show that this results in the oxygen being split evenly and delivered to each nostril at the same time.

The Apogee’s nasal cannula, although it may look like a standard nasal cannula, has two tubes fused together, one entering each nostril. Each nasal airway is sensed separately, and the full oxygen dosage is then sent directly to the most receptive nostril.

What happens when one nostril becomes blocked using systems that use a standard nasal cannula?

Up to 50% of the prescribed oxygen in standard cannulas is blocked at the closed nostril and released to the atmosphere. This flow never enters the patient’s lower airway. When this occurs, flow rates must be doubled to achieve the same FiO2 (percent oxygen entering the airway). For example, three liters of flow must be increased to six.

What is pulse oxygen delivery and why is it used?

Oxygen can be delivered either continuously during both inhalation and exhalation (as is in most stationary home oxygen concentrators) or in a pulse dose mode where the oxygen is only delivered upon inhalation (as seen in most portable oxygen systems). This is to extend the time the portable system will operate.

What are the most important factors to consider when comparing pulse oxygen conserving systems?

1. The size of oxygen bolus (flow amount) delivered for each breath. Many units deliver a ‘minute volume’ so the faster you breathe, the smaller the bolus of oxygen becomes. The Apogee, on the other hand, delivers a ‘uniform pulse dose’ so that the bolus size remains constant regardless of breath rate.

2. The ability to detect inhalation at the earliest moment is critical to optimize therapy because only the first portion of inhalation will get deep enough into the lungs where gas exchange occurs. Units that sense and deliver late may only fill up the dead space in the airway. The Apogee’s dual sensors detect and deliver the oxygen before many oxygen systems can even begin to detect that inhalation has begun.

3. The purity of the oxygen being delivered. Some concentrators that are exceedingly small can only deliver oxygen purity that is less than 85% whereas oxygen tanks deliver about 99% purity.

What are some of the advantages of the Apogee’s Dynamic Oxygen Delivery?

1. The most important advantage of dynamic delivery is receiving oxygen consistently regardless of whether one side of the nose is completely blocked. This is important because if your oxygen is being split 50% to each nostril and one nostril becomes blocked then only half of the oxygen will be therapeutic.

2. Because the Apogee does not flow any gas to the congested nostril, dryness and irritation may be substantially reduced.

Why until only very recently was there little information about the nasal cycle?

The nasal cycle was first described in a medical text in 1895. For nearly 100 years thereafter, there was little study on this subject — possibly because there was no way to continuously observe nasal airflow in real-time.

The inventors of the Apogee at Dynaris discovered how the nasal cycle occurs inadvertently after inventing and patenting a device to improve the way sleep laboratories measure nasal breathing for sleep apnea patients.

At first, they thought their machine was broken because it would often only detect airflow out of one nostril at a time. After research and testing hundreds of patients during a University Sleep Center, the nasal cycle was rediscovered. The graph shown on the homepage of this website records a real patient’s nasal airflow pattern recorded during that study.

The nasal cycle is now widely studied throughout the world. It is mentioned in publications, medical textbooks, and even Wikipedia.

Apogee ® is a Registered Trademark of Dynaris.