Here is a little tip. My wife kept having low readings using the fingertip monitor. Our doctor checked using a finger monitor AND an earlobe monitor. Turns out my wife had poor circulation in her fingers so readings were low. Now we use use ear monitor only.
i bought the bride a finger pulse oximeter a few years ago. cost about 300 or so. best thing we like about is that when she gets tired. we know that its not that shes oxygen deprived.
Thanks to everyone's input, I have the pulse ox meter, pd $174 with case at SE Medical online. It read 97 in Dallas which is 400 altitude. Now in Denver it is 5200 altitude, what should it read?
I would think that it would still be at normal reading levels. The altitude does not affect 02 SATURATION, just concentration!!
Now I will give this little jewel out!! Don't let the numbers fool you. CO attaches 1700 to 1 at the same rate that O2 does......CO will push 02 out of the cell. So you can be in bad trouble in a highly chrarged CO atmosphere and the "O2 Sat" still be 97-100. All that the numbers tell you is that "cell" has 97-100% of a gas in it!!
Just food for thought!!
Member of the Masonic group RVTravelingMen
So Mote It be!!
[quote=newfifthwheel]I would think that it would still be at normal reading levels. The altitude does not affect 02 SATURATION, just concentration!!
This is not true. Altitude does not change the [u][/u]percentage of oxygen in the air (about 21%), but the total number of oxygen molecules available (the concentration) is decreased. At 5200 feet the decrease may not be enough to affect saturation, but it could.
"Now I will give this little jewel out!! Don't let the numbers fool you. CO attaches 1700 to 1 at the same rate that O2 does......CO will push 02 out of the cell."
Again not entirely accurate. CO has about 200x the affinity for hemoglobin as does oxygen. Once CO binds to hemoglobin it does not release. Hemoglobin bound by CO will prevent oxygen from attaching and traveling to the body for consumption. The amount of hemoglobin bound by CO can be measured by co-oximetry, which usually involves a blood sample being drawn from an artery (not a vein, like most blood work), and tested in a specific kind of blood gas machine. There is one company that makes an oximeter that can distinguish between oxyhemoglobin and carboxyhemoglobin. This device is pretty new and probably not available most places.
So you can be in bad trouble in a highly chrarged CO atmosphere and the "O2 Sat" still be 97-100. All that the numbers tell you is that "cell" has 97-100% of a gas in it!!
That is correct. Most oximeters cannot distinguish the gas attached to hemoglobin, only that hemoglobin is or is not "saturated".
I mean no disrespect, but I am a respiratory therapist by trade.
Chuck
Note: Due to invalid formatting, all formatting has been ignored.
Offline
