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Oxymetry - mycorrado - 06-04-2014
Hi everyone!
I have been monitoring my Oxygen Saturation levels (SpO2). in the evening I am borderline low @94-95. As soon as I hook up the CPAP it goes up to 99.
Is this normal? I do have a slight anemia, (low MCV) probably due to Iron, which is why I am monitoring the SpO2.
Thanks!
RE: Oxymetry - retired_guy - 06-04-2014
94-95 sounds pretty good to me! 99 is fine but I'm not sure we're built for it to be there all the time all night. I perk along at 93 at night. But like I say everyone's different. Except me of course. I'm not different.... I'm the same.
RE: Oxymetry - DocWils - 06-04-2014
I am assuming that you are not looking at an all-night recording of your sO2sats, but a "live" view (you didn't state if this was based on a read-out from a recording pulse-ox or not) - if that is the case, then, yes, the added air pressure will raise, temporarily, your sO2sats to 99 as you start to take in greater doses of air during the adjustment period, but it should lower to around 92-95/7 as the norm during sleep - if you are 99% oxygenated all night, I am not sure if that is exactly healthy or not, only tha tit is above the norm, however I doubt seriously that you could be - it would indicate you are pushing tons of oxygen in a manner that most CPAP devices don't permit, because it depends not only on the pressure of the air to deliver the O2, but how long and deep the breath is, and most machines sort of prevent, in their method of cycling air, a log pattern breath ( I know this since it is a problem for me, having "diver's lungs" and tending to skip-breathe) or rapid breathing.
RE: Oxymetry - Peter_C - 06-04-2014
FYI - anemia can/will cause lower O2 numbers (I just went through internal bleeding down to a count of 8.4, and took 3 month to bring it up to 13). But I will also say that "low" isn't low til you drop below the magic 88%. In the software, look for 'minutes less than 88%', if under 5 minutes or so during a night - no worries (so says both my GP and sleep Doc that I just saw 2 weeks ago.)
At the height of my anemia (before they figured it out and sent me to hospital), I was bouncing just above/below 88% all night, with 19+ minutes under 88%. Had to get a refill, iron pills, the works.
RE: Oxymetry - mycorrado - 06-04-2014
Thanks, no It wasn't an overnight reading, just the instantaneous reading I was watching. I am not using the CMS50 but one I got for my android, the Masimo SpO2. Now that I read about the CMS50X and the data integration with Resmed I wonder if the data formats are the same.
I have not yet recorded a full night with it.
RE: Oxymetry - bwexler - 06-04-2014
Unless you have recorded a full night I doubt the spot readings have great significance.
Even if the date is not compatible with ResScan or Sleepyhead you can match the timeline to compare events with SPO2.
RE: Oxymetry - jaycee - 06-04-2014
Box cars.
Think of your red blood cells as box cars that carry oxygen. Your heart is the engine that moves the cars around the track, your bloodstream. Your lungs fill the box cars, your cells use the oxygen.
A pulse oximeter tells you how full those box cars are. So when you hear 94-95%, that means that the box cars are carrying 94-95% of what they can carry. Unfortunately, a pulse oximeter is a bit limitted. It doesn't tell you how many box cars there are or what is in the box cars.
Example:
A patient taken from a burning building looks very short of breath despite being on 100% oxygen. You put a pulse oximeter on them and it reads 100%. Everything is fine, right ?? Wrong......
You have carbon monoxide in your box cars along with your oxygen. All your box cars are full (which is why you get a 100% reading) but the pulse oximeter can't tell what with.
Example 2:
A patient is bleeding (or anemic for any other reason) and looks very short of breath. You put a pulse oximeter on them and it is reading 97%. Everything is fine, right ?? Wrong....
A pulse oximeter can't tell you how many box cars you have. While the ones you have may be 97% full, if you don't have enough box cars you will still be very short of breath.
Moral of the story: A pulse oximeter won't really tell you anything about anemia.