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COVID-19 - Pulse Oximeter is a solution at your fingertip

PULSE OXIMETER - COVID-19

Pulse Oximeter measures oxygen saturation in blood. 

One  of the answers to COVID-19 is probably at your fingertip , doctor says . With growing experience of dealing with sick people who report to hospitals with breathlessness , experts have recommended the use of relatively cheap device at home that can forewarn you about any impending crisis - the pulse oximeter.

The small device , which fits into the palm of your hand , measures the oxygen saturation in the blood in a non-invasive manner.


All one need to do is clip the device onto a finger tip , and it will show the Spo2 level (peripheral oxygen saturation) , or the oxygen level in blood. Its role in COVID-19 patient's health monitoring is significant.

Silent hypoxia (deprivation of oxygen at the tissue level) has emerged as a major cause of death in COVID-19 patients , said K. Kolandaswamy , former director of public health. Usually , when your oxygen falls below 95% , you will have symptoms , breathlessness , a feeling of discomfort certainly. Now in COVID-19 , for some reason , that is not happening. Patients are not feeling the drop in oxygen levels at all until they are dangerously low. When they finally land up in hospital , they sometimes have a Spo2 of 80% , or 75% and are in respiratory distress, he explained.

The pulse oximeter , priced upwards of Rs .1000 , will prevent the patient from reaching this level of distress , he said. Daily monitoring of Spo2 levels will indicate if there is hypoxia , and in case the level drop below 95% , it would be prudent to seek medical care, he added.

In government hospitals , patient's Spo2 levels are monitored with a pulse oximeter and recorded at four-hour intervals. At the first sign of a drop in oxygen saturation , the patient is given high flow nasal oxygen in order to improve his or her condition . We would advise people at home to buy this device and use it to test themselves often. Any drop below 95% is a cause for worry, said doctor at the Multi Super Speciality Hospital, Omandurar.

R. Jayanthi , dean , Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital , said intervention at an early stage , or detection of dropping oxygen saturation levels , could prevent deaths.
When a  cytokine storm occurs , there is supposed to be an aberrant release of pro-inflammatory factors that causes damage to the lungs and hypoxia, among other factors. Hence noticing the drop in oxygen levels is key , experts pointed out. Unless prevented early , a cytokine storm sets in motion a cascade of events that becomes irreversible , and leads to death.
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