Chest
Skin Color and Ear Oximetry
Section snippets
Patients
We studied prospectively 187 pulmonary patients referred to our laboratory for clinical exercise testing. A standard protocol was followed for either steady-state or incremental, maximal exercise testing for each patient. Steady-state tests involved exercise for at least four minutes at a level approximating the patient's normal daily activity level. Maximal tests employed one minute work increments to a symptom-limited maximum. Patients exercised either walking on a treadmill or seated on a
RESULTS
Of the 187 patients studied, the Ohmeda/Biox III oximeter was used for 476 rest and exercise samples in 136 patients and the Hewlett-Packard oximeter was used for 524 rest and exercise samples in 154 patients. The instruments were used simultaneously for 345 rest and exercise samples in 103 patients.
Technical problems with ear oximetry readings were noted in 10 out of 136 patients (7 percent) tested with the Ohmeda/Biox oximeter and five out of 154 patients (3 percent) with the Hewlett-Packard
DISCUSSION
The results of this study indicate potential problems with the performance of cutaneous oximeters in some individuals with dark skin color. For both the newer “pulse-type” two wave-length Ohmeda/Biox III and the older eight wave-length Hewlett-Packard 47201A ear oximeter, technical problems were observed significantly more frequently in the darkest patients.
For the Ohmeda/Biox III instrument, technical problems were observed in 18 percent of the darkest (group 4) patients vs only 5 percent of
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Cited by (0)
This research was supported in part by NIH Grant No RR00827 from the Division of Research Resources for the Clinical Research Center.
Manuscript received May 19; revision accepted December 9.