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Pulse oximetry

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Abstract

Pulse oximetry is universally used for monitoring patients in the critical care setting. This article updates the review on pulse oximetry that was published in 1999 in Critical Care. A summary of the recently developed multiwavelength pulse oximeters and their ability in detecting dyshemoglobins is provided. The impact of the latest signal processing techniques and reflectance technology on improving the performance of pulse oximeters during motion artifact and low perfusion conditions is critically examined. Finally, data regarding the effect of pulse oximetry on patient outcome are discussed.

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Abbreviations

ARDS:

acute respiratory distress syndrome

COHb:

carboxyhemoglobin

FIO2 :

fractional inspired oxygen concentration

ICU:

intensive care unit

MetHb:

methemoglobin

PaO2 :

arterial oxygen tension

PEEP:

positive end-expiratory pressure

P/F:

PaO2-to-FIO2 ratio

r:

correlation coefficient

SaO2 :

arterial oxygen saturation

SET:

signal extraction technology

S/F:

SpO2-to-FIO2 ratio

SpO2 :

oxygen saturation measured by pulse oximetry

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Affairs Hospital, 111N, 5000 South Fifth Avenue, Hines, IL, 60141, USA

    Amal Jubran

  2. Loyola University of Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, 2160 South First Avenue, Maywood, IL, 60153, USA

    Amal Jubran

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  1. Amal Jubran
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Correspondence to Amal Jubran.

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The author declares that he has no competing interests.

See related review by Jubran, http://ccforum.com/content/3/2/R11

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

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Jubran, A. Pulse oximetry. Crit Care 19, 272 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13054-015-0984-8

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