Accuracy of pulse oximetry in determining oxygen saturation in the intensive care unit / Abegaeil S. Diaz-Vinluan, and Lucas Uy.

Includes bibliographical references.

ABSTRACT: Pulse oximetry (SpO2) is a standard monitoring device in intensive care untis, currently used to guide therapeutic interventions. Few studies have evaluated the accuracy of SpO2 in critically ill patient. This study investigates the relation between changes in pulse oximeter oxygen saturation (SpO2) and changes in arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2) in critically ill patient, and the effects of age, gender, blood pressure, cardiac rate, respiratory rate, temperature, diagnosis, presence of vasoactive drugs and type of pulse eximeter in SpO2 readings. Sixty six consecutive patients were recruited in the 11 bed capacity of ICU/CCU into a 3 - month study. Patients with significants jaundice (bilirubin >40 uml/L). History of carbon monoxide inhalation and those with inadequate SpO2 trace were excluded. A total of 200 blood gas and pulse oximeter readings demonstrated no significant difference (P value 0.96) in the oxygen saturation readings between pulse oximetry and ABG. Blood pressure has significant direct correlation with SpO2 readings at 0.01 level while cardiac and respiratory rate has inverse correlation with SpO2 readings at 0.05 level. In conclusion, we showed that there is no significant difference in the O2 saturation readings between pulse oximetry and ABG, hence, accuracy of the 2 parameters is comparable.

Research - Department of Medicine