Is pulse oximeter a reliable tool for non-critically ill patients with COVID-19?

Link to article at PubMed

Int J Clin Pract. 2021 Oct 12:e14983. doi: 10.1111/ijcp.14983. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Guidelines recommend using a pulse oximeter rather than arterial blood gas (ABG) for COVID-19 patients. However, significant differences can be observed between oxygen saturation measured by pulse oximetry (SpO2 ) and arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2 ) in some clinical conditions. We aimed to assess the reliability of pulse oximeter in patients with COVID-19 METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed ABG analyses and SpO2 levels measured simultaneously with ABG in patients hospitalized in COVID-19 wards.

RESULTS: We categorized total 117 patients into two groups; in whom the difference between SpO2 and SaO2 was ≤4% (acceptable difference) and >4% (large difference). Large difference group exhibited higher neutrophil count, C-reactive protein, ferritin, fibrinogen, D-dimer and lower lymphocyte count. Multivariate analyses revealed that increased fibrinogen, increased ferritin and decreased lymphocyte count were independent risk factors for large difference between SpO2 and SaO2 . The total study group demonstrated the negative bias of 4.02% with the limits of agreement of -9.22% to 1.17%. The bias became significantly higher in patients with higher ferritin, fibrinogen levels and lower lymphocyte count.

CONCLUSION: Pulse oximeters may not be sufficient to assess actual oxygen saturation especially in COVID-19 patients with high ferritin and fibrinogen levels and low lymphocyte count low SpO2 measurements.

PMID:34637170 | DOI:10.1111/ijcp.14983

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