Does compression of the cuff during noninvasive blood pressure measurement affect simultaneous pulse oximetry (SpO2) readings?
Simultaneous noninvasive blood pressure measurements can cause transient, artifactual increases in SpO2 readings, potentially leading to clinical misinterpretation.
Information about blood arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2) is crucial in critical care settings or home health monitoring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, we need to identify the factors that affect the SpO2 measurement. In this paper, the effect of compression of the cuff during noninvasive blood pressure (NIBP) measurement on the SpO2 results was investigated. A custom-made system was used for simultaneous measurement of NIBP and SpO2. The study was conducted on 213 subjects aged between 21 and 93, with a systolic blood pressure of (94 to 194) mmHg, diastolic blood pressure of (52–98) mmHg, and 994 NIBP readings were used for the analysis. During the NIBP measurement, momentary changes in SpO2 can reach ±17% and are in most cases positive (mean 2.9%). The change was not correlated with sex, age, height, body weight, BMI, HR and blood pressure. The obtained results show that frequent NIBP measurements may lead to wrong conclusions about SpO2. In our study, pressure measurements mainly caused the increase of blood oxygenation level.
Sondej et al. (Mon,) studied this question.