Jan 7, 2021 WEDNESDAY, Jan. 6, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Black patients have higher frequency of occult hypoxemia that is not detected by pulse oximetry, according to a research letter published in the Dec. 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Michael W. Sjoding, M.D., from the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, and colleagues examined potential racial bias in pulse oximetry measurements in a study involving adult inpatients receiving supplemental oxygen. A total of 10,789 pairs of measures of oxygen saturation by pulse oximetry and arterial oxygen saturation in arterial blood gas were analyzed from 1,333 White patients and 276 Black patients in a University of Michigan cohort (January through July 2020), and 37,308 pairs were analyzed from 7,342 White patients and 1,050 Black patients in a multicenter cohort (2014 through 2015).