Articles: hypoxaemia.
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Comparative Study
Comparing finger and forehead sensors to measure oxygen saturation in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Oxyhaemoglobin saturation of arterial blood is commonly measured using a finger sensor attached to a pulse oximeter (SpO(2)). We sought to compare SpO(2) measured using finger and forehead sensors with oxyhaemoglobin saturation in arterialized capillary samples (ACS) in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) during exercise. ⋯ Oxygen saturation measured using the forehead sensor was higher than that measured in ACS. Assuming that oxygen saturation in ACS is slightly less than arterial blood, forehead sensors may yield measures more concordant with arterial blood. Both sensors detected exercise-induced desaturation.
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Symptomatic obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) has been proven to be a risk factor for hypertension and vascular dysfunction, and has been proposed to be causally related with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. Searches of bibliographical databases revealed that several mechanisms seem to underpin the association between OSA and cardiac arrhythmias: intermittent hypoxia associated with autonomic nervous system activation and increased oxidative stress, which may lead to cardiac cellular damage and alteration in myocardial excitability; recurrent arousals, resulting in sympathetic activation and coronary vasoconstriction; and increased negative intrathoracic pressure which may mechanically stretch the myocardial walls and, thus, promote acute changes in myocardial excitability as well as structural remodelling of the myocardium. ⋯ In conclusion, there is preliminary evidence that OSA is associated with the development of cardiac arrhythmias. Data from randomised controlled studies are needed to definitively clarify the role of OSA in arrhythmogenesis.
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The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of early postoperative hypoxia after general anesthesia and to evaluate the need of oxygen supplementation. A total of 150 patients aged between 18-60 years belonging to ASA I or II were studied. Patients were alternately allocated to two groups of 75 each. ⋯ Group-II (n=75) patients did not receive oxygen either during transfer or in the recovery room. Twenty percent in Group-II developed hypoxaemia during transfer from operation theatre to recovery room out of which 24% developed mild (SaO2 86-90%), 2.66% moderate (SaO2 85-81%), and 1.33% extreme (SaO2 <76%) hypoxaemia. None of the patients in Group - I, who received oxygen supplementation, developed hypoxaemia in the early postoperative period.