greatgateway523

Thank you! That term's actually new to me, but I assume Sick sensor syndrome means falsely diagnostic readings?

Hello, this is just a follow-up question from my last post - thank you for your help last time! I witnessed a pulse oximeter SPO2 suddenly nose dive from 93% to 44% and get stuck at that low value. The patient had a few symptoms like feeling slightly dyspenic but nothing major - no early signs of hypoxia otherwise. Nicely warmed hands too. Obviously the symptoms they get may differ from others but still, that difference in sats was astonishing. Couldn't get an answer asking around..' I couldn't help but wonder if the reader was too tight and causing venous pulsations, so after observing a while - the readings did shoot back up with as deep a breath as was possible - I changed fingers. The reading showed 97% which didn't seem quite right either despite calibration. Each time the reader was attached, it started out tighter fitting, then self-adjusted itself to loosen. In almost every case, numbers were lower when it was tighter (e.g. 79 - 85%) and skyrocketed upon loosening a bit (e.g. 96 - 98%). Pulse readings were accurate throughout. I'm not sure if this is a silly question, but if the reader is too tight do SPO2 values become falsely low? Likewise do loose oximeters show falsely high sats? I'm still learning; Searching online has some very vague answers Thanks again!

Thanks! Sorry to sound dumb about this, but do you mean a desaturation occurs with warm hands when the patient already has an underlying factor like acidiosis, or is it likely in a too hot, but otherwise healthy patient without acidiosis too?

Hello. I've always been under the impression that before using a finger pulse oximeter, the patient's hand must be warmed. Too cold digits result in lower spo2. I have recently had a conundrum with the exact opposite scenario! The warmer the patient's fingers became, the lower his spo2 dropped. When they were cooler, sats stayed stuck at 97-98%, but fluctuated around 91 - 94% with heat. Another thing I noticed is that when the patient took a deep breath for any reason (yawning from air hunger feeling as an example) sats would climb to around 97% but then rapidly plummet a few seconds later to as low as 87%. I bet the answer is more simple than I think, so I'm sorry if this is a silly question, but what would cause such things? They seem to both defy logic, yet the reader is properly calibrated and accurate compared to others..!