PULSE OXIMETER READING SKIN

Pulse Ox not available on Garmin devices in all countries. Your device is not intended for medical purposes, and any questions about your Pulse Ox reading should be answered by your physician or other qualified health care professional. Numbers below 90% may be considered low, according to the Mayo Clinic. Generally speaking, this value should be 95% or higher in most settings, but this value can be influenced by altitude, activity and an individual’s health. When every seat in the train has a passenger sitting in it, then the train is operating at 100% capacity.Ĭompatible Garmin wearables use a combination of red and infrared lights with sensors on the back of the device, which can estimate the percentage of oxygenated blood (peripheral oxygen saturation, SpO2%) available in your blood. If you think about your blood as a train and oxygen as the passengers on that train, a pulse oximeter is telling you how crowded the train is compared to maximum capacity.

A pulse oximeter measures how much oxygen (compared to maximum capacity) is in your bloodstream as it travels around your body. It is mixed into your blood supply and pushed throughout your body with each heartbeat. Oxygen is extracted from the air that fills your lungs when you inhale. Your circulatory system, which includes your heart, lungs and blood, all work together to import oxygen from the environment into your cells. These evaluations are a source of significant expense, including that of the cardiopulmonary exercise testing itself, as well as risk to the patient from invasive procedures or radiation exposure that may be unnecessary if their pulse oximetry testing results were inaccurate.All the various cells in your body need oxygen to function properly. The referred patients have frequently undergone extensive diagnostic evaluations on the basis of their 6MWT oximetry results. Patients suspected of having desaturations by pulse oximetry during a 6MWT are regularly referred to the facility for formal cardiopulmonary exercise testing. However, more recent guidelines for field walking tests support the use of continuous oximetry because of evidence showing that the lowest saturation does not necessarily occur at the end of the test. This leads to a greater risk of misinterpretation, as a digital readout is assumed to be accurate without a proper understanding of how that measurement is made. First, make sure the sensor is properly positioned on your finger. If you are concerned that your pulse oximeter is giving a false reading, there are a few things you can do to troubleshoot the problem. In addition, many handheld pulse oximeters available in the office setting do not display oximetry waveforms or alternative evaluations of measurement quality. False pulse oximeter readings can be caused by a number of factors, such as ambient light interference, low blood pressure, and motion artifact. Prior studies have shown significant inaccuracies in this setting, likely due to motion artifact. The potential of erroneous readings must be considered, especially measurements made during exercise.Ĭontinuous pulse oximetry is commonly combined with a 6-min walk test in the ambulatory setting when evaluating dyspnea.

PULSE OXIMETER READING SKIN

However, pulse oximeters can give erroneous from a variety of causes, including hypoperfusion, nail polish, darker skin pigmentation, venous pulsations, and, perhaps most frequently, motion artifact.Ĭlinicians must consider these possible causes of error when interpreting pulse oximetry results, especially those that are not consistent with a patient’s clinical status and medical history.Ĭlinically significant desaturations in an ambulatory setting are uncommon in patients without significant pathological pulmonary conditions or pulmonary vascular disease.

4 What is a normal Pulse Oximeter reading?.

2 What causes low pulse oximetry reading?.

Pulse oximeter reading