Gas Exhange

Overnight Pulse Oximetry

Respiratory physiology may be quite different at night and may be the sole area where a patient experiences clinically important desaturation. A common response when I discuss nocturnal desaturation given the high prevalence of pulse oximeters is "whenever I wake up and check my oxygen level it is just fine". Given the fact that we must be awake for three minutes for our brain to process an experience as a memory, the time it would take to sleep inertia to allow a person to find and turn on a pulse oximeter, and the 1+min delay for a consumer grade pulse oximeter to record a value, spot checks for SaO2 have no correlation with the duration or severity of sleep related desaturation.

An overnight oximeter records the SaO2 value every few seconds and internally records that data. While devices that have this capability are available at a consumer level their cost to 5-10 times higher than a device that performs spot checks.

In addition when this information is being used for determination of oxygen need, it must be performed by a "neutral" party.

VitruOx has a business model based on the independent performance of overnight pulse oximetry. Below is a sample of an overnight oximetry report.