Apple's new smartwatch has a monitoring device that doctors credit with saving coronavirus patients' lives. It can flag dangerous downturns.
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So doctors have become increasingly reliant on a small medical device called a pulse oximeter that measures the level of oxygen in a person's blood.
Blood-oxygen readings can help flag serious cases even before a person has developed severe symptoms like shortness of breath. They can also signal to patients when it's time to go to the hospital.The watch is far more expensive than a pulse oximeter sold over the counter at drug stores: $400 compared about $30 to $50. Traditional oximeters also clip around the fingertip instead of the wrist. But there are advantages to having the tool on hand at all times.
A June study from the Swedish Hospital in Chicago found that pulse oximeters reliably flagged severe cases of COVID-19 among patients who consistently monitored their blood-oxygen levels throughout the day.The study involved 77 COVID-19 patients, most of whom had recently been sent home from the emergency room. The patients were asked to check their blood-oxygen levels every day for a week in the morning, afternoon, and at night. If their resting blood-oxygen level dipped below 92%, patients were told to return to the ER.
Doctors typically look for a range of 95 to 100% for healthy patients. Oxygen levels below 90% signal a clinical emergency, according to the World Health Organization. Ultimately, less than 20 of the Chicago patients recorded blood-oxygen levels below 92% while they were at home. Almost all of those patients returned to the ER and were hospitalized. Of the 58 patients who had blood-oxygen levels at or above 92%, less than 20% returned to the ER.That suggested that blood-oxygen levels were a strong indicator of when a person needed immediate medical attention — perhaps even a better indicator than a patient's physical symptoms.
Patients also reported that they were more comfortable not returning to the ER after seeing that their blood-oxygen levels were normal. That could help prevent sick patients from unnecessary exposure at the hospital.
"As oxygen levels drop in patients with COVID-19, the brain does not respond until oxygen falls to very low levels — at which point, a patient typically becomes short of breath," Dr. Martin Tobin, a professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the Loyola University Medical Center, told Medical
Patients with silent hypoxemia may still breathe heavily to supplement their lack of oxygen — an activity that can create more inflammation and collapse the tiny air sacs in the lungs. That's why it's important to treat patients as soon as their blood-oxygen levels start to dip.
The window is often short, since many coronavirus cases turn critical in a matter of hours.Those who show up to the hospital early have a better chance of receiving noninvasive treatments like an oxygen mask, as opposed to ventilators, which require a breathing tube to be inserted through the windpipe. That decreases a person's risk of lung injury.
Like any technology, however, pulse oximeters aren't foolproof: Readings can be faulty if a person has jaundice, anemia, or another blood disorder. Even shaky hands can throw off a result. But doctors continue to recommend the tool for patients — especially in areas where hospital capacity is limited.Copyright © 2021. Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.For reprint rights. Times Syndication Service.
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