Wjy Do 2 Different Pulse Oxometers Read Differently

11.10.2019

It's without question that sleep specialists desire the most accurate pulse oximetry technology built into the sleep tests that they rely on to monitor and diagnose their patients for sleep disordered breathing, only not all of these devices are created equally.

Oximeters in Sleep Studies Have Specific Requirements

Measuring oxygen saturation drops during apneic and hypoapneic events is primal to diagnosing sleep disordered animate. Oximeters used in slumber studies must be dynamic in that sense and they must be able to measure oxygen saturation in very challenging conditions over a short period of time.

Patients sleeping with oximeters might movement oftentimes and ofttimes might endure from low baseline saturation, such as in the case of chronic ostructive pulmonary illness (COPD) patients suffering from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Oximeter manufacturers must, as well, at the same fourth dimension brand certain the device is comfortable and very reliable, especially in catching desaturation drops, which might occur for only a few seconds.

Since pulse oximetry is non standardized across manufacturers, information technology isn't uncommon for dissimilar pulse oximeters to show variability in oxygen readings on the same patient.

Clinicians need to be aware of differences among popular devices they are using for diagnosis and patient management, according to a paper published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine in April, 2019.

The paper observed that a greater number of obstructive sleep apnea patients with comorbid COPD would take qualified for nocturnal oxygen when tested with the Nox T3 Portable Monitor versus polysomnogram, using different oxygen engineering science.

This is not considering the pulse oximetry reading is inaccurate in one of the cases, but because all pulse oximeters are calibrated using CO-oximeters, which have an inherent bias to their measurements.

This means that the same blood sample analyzed by dissimilar CO-oximeters may give results that differ past as much as iii percent between two devices, according to information provided by Nonin Medical.

Nox T3 and Nonin Technology

The Nox T3 uses pulse oximetry applied science from Nonin Medical, which is calibrated with depression bias, explains Steve Carey, global sales manager of eHealth and connected devices at Nonin Medical. Many other pop devices accept a loftier bias, which ways they show a higher oxygen saturation charge per unit than the true claret gas. False high readings could lead to clinicians overlooking desaturation events, says Carey.

In one study, published in Anesthesia & Analgesia , researchers observed that when measuring claret oxygen levels in patients with dark skin pigmentation, Nonin'southward clip-on device showed the lowest level of bias compared to devices from other manufacturers.

"There is a clinical difference in having a low bias, and frankly, that's why Nonin picked it," says Carey. "We wanted to make certain that we captured even those borderline desaturation events, rather than study fake highs."

"The results from the study past Han et al. (see to a higher place)  showed united states that using different oximeters in diagnosing COPD patients with OSA would have resulted in different clinical decisions being made. The decision whether to care for these patients with oxygen or not was different, based on which technology was used," Nox Medical product marketing manager Snorri Helgason says.

"In my opinion, in cases like these, physicians must exist aware of the divergence between oximeters existence used in sleep diagnostics. Different engineering is being used by different vendors, and I believe this is very important. High-biased oximeter results might result in patients being treated as well late, that should, in fact, have been treated correct away" Helgason adds.

"Conversely, overtreating patients based on low-bias finding is also a problem, merely at least, physicians that are aware of this technology differences are much ameliorate suited in taking much more than reliable decisions on treatment options."

The first fingertip pulse oximeter was manufactured in 1995 by Nonin Medical and saw rapid adoption in the clinical setting. Since and so, these devices accept become the gold standard in sleep testing technology.

"We knew that our target market place at the time was going to be the sleep market," says Carey.

A number of years ago, Nonin too helped write the pulse oximetry testing standards guidelines for the American Club for Testing and Materials, an international organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards.

In recent years, several new fingertip pulse oximeter units have been adult. Many of these devices are available over the counter at a depression price. Anecdotal information nerveless from clinicians has indicated that the inconsistent performance of some devices may be due to low betoken force from low perfusion or labored animate, co-ordinate to a white paper published by Nonin Medical.

"There is a world of departure betwixt the different little fingertip pulse oximetry monitors you lot see in the drug stores [and the Nonin devices]," says Carey. "We believe Nonin is the clear choice when selecting an oximeter for use on whatever patient regardless of disease state or condition."

Topic: Manufacture News

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Source: https://noxmedical.com/about/news-press/article/not-all-pulse-oximeters-are-alike-how-understanding-inherent-bias-can-lead-to-more-accurate-blood-oxygen-readings/

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