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Pulse Oximeters and Arrhythmias - srlevine1 - 07-24-2016
Due to a recommendation of a fellow forum user, I contacted Kevin Cooper (Vendor #19) for a recommendation. He patiently emailed me with details and convinced me that purchasing a unit from a foreign supplier (even at a great price) may not be such a good idea and that I would want one that was FDA-approved.
Anyway, the unit I tried did not work due to a heart arrhythmia (PVCs and PACs). Kevin offered to let me return the unit and/or try another unit. You do not find that level of customer service often -- and when you do, it should be rewarded with a comment and additional business.
Other than the data issue with arrhythmia, the CMS-50F worked great out of the box after charging it with the supplied USB charge adapter. The SPO2 Assistant software loaded without incident on my Windows 10 machine without the need for additional drivers. The data was presented (with big time errors) in all of the reports. And, the data was easily integrated into Sleepyhead. Since this is as new purchase, I cannot comment on battery longevity, but I hear it is good for years.
I spoke with some biomedical engineers at UCLA Medical Center and they explained why even most professional hospital units have accuracy problems with patients who present with arrhythmias. Even the Masimo SET algorithm has issues.
So, for those who have arrhythmia, you may want to speak to someone knowledgeable before purchasing that pulseox unit.
Again, kudos to Kevin Cooper (Vendor #19).
RE: Pulse Oximeters and Arrhythmias - Jimsp1 - 07-24-2016
I've had problems finding a heart rate monitors that work well with arrhythmias. My Polar HRM won't update the display unless it sees 5 regularly spaced heart beats which is OK for most people as you wouldn't want an occasional irregular beat to jump the display. Even with moderate exercise my pvc or pac's occur more often than every 5 beats so the display just freezes.
I do have a CMS-50F that I use some nights and because during sleep my heart rate is lower I don't have many arrhythmias so it gives me a good idea what my heart rate was. It was my problems with arrhythmias that prompted the sleep test in the first place. My APAP machine has lowered my AHI to under 1 but has not helped with the arrhythmias.