Sunday, November 24, 2013

An Explanation Of CMS Pulse Oximeters

By Georgia Diaz


CMS pulse oximeters are the little medical devices that they plug onto your fingertip whenever you go to the Emergency Room or before an operation. Sometimes they put them onto the earlobes. In tiny babies, they use a foot. The purpose of the device is to measure the percentage of hemoglobin that is saturated with oxygen. Generally, this number should always be at 95% or higher.

It isn't obvious how a non-invasive instrument can measure with any degree of accuracy something down to the molecular level. Without getting too technical, oximetry works on the principle that different substances absorb light differently. Two different wavelengths of light are passed through the patient and the instrument is able to determine the absorbance, and therefore the concentration, of oxygen in pulsating arterial blood.

While this is an excellent way of screening sick people from really sick people, a more accurate measurement is obtained by measuring oxygen directly from arterial blood. This is important in places like intensive care units or when a patient is under anesthesia having an operation.

They need a good reason to measure arterial oxygen levels because placing the needle into an artery is very painful to the patient. This is fine if the person is unconscious, as if they were under an anesthetic or unconscious. If they are awake and aware, it feels like someone is plunging a needle directly into bone.

Pulse oximeters are used a lot in research. Oxygen saturation is one of the parameters that is measured as part of sleeping studies that are investigating whether an individual suffers from sleep apnea, a condition where they stop breathing for brief periods during the night. This is a potentially fatal condition because it can lead to heart attack or stroke. At the very least, it makes people sleepy and unproductive the next morning.

There are two main types of sleep apnea, obstructive and neurological. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the more common of the two and is also the easiest to treat. Therapies include surgery, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) or prescribing a device that the patient puts in their mouth when they go to bed that helps them to keep their airway open.

The other kind of sleep apnea, neurological or central sleep apnea, is rarer and more serious than OSA. Rather than being unable to breathe, your brain doesn't bother to try. This is usually associated with a serious underlying condition affecting the brain stem, which is the part of the brain that controls breathing. Central sleep apnea may manifest itself alone or alongside OSA.

Although anyone can have any type of sleep apnea, the major risk factors are male gender over the age of 40 and being overweight. Sleep apnea is particularly dangerous in infants, who can stop breathing for as long as twenty seconds. This is a very daunting prospect for new parents. Fortunately, there are apnea alarms available that will alert the parents when a baby stops breathing for a set number of seconds. It is also possible to obtain CMS pulse oximeters for home use.




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