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Blood Oxygen Tests Can Be Inaccurate for Black Patients, Raising COVID Risks Amy Norton, HealthDay News, December 18, 2020 The fingertip devices that hospitals use to monitor patients’ oxygen levels might be less accurate in people with dark skin, a new study suggests. At issue are pulse oximeters — small medical devices that clip onto a fingertip and estimate how much oxygen is making it into the blood. They are routinely used in hospitals to help providers make treatment decisions. And during the COVID-19 pandemic, pulse oximeters have increasingly made their way into the hands of lay p...

Blood oxygen tests may be inaccurate for Black patients By (0) A new study suggests that Black patients are at greater risk of having a falsely reassuring reading on pulse oximetry than white patients are. File Photo by Molly Riley/UPI | License Photo The fingertip devices that hospitals use to monitor patients' oxygen levels might be less accurate in people with dark skin, a new study suggests. At issue are pulse oximeters -- small medical devices that clip onto a fingertip and estimate how much oxygen is making it into the blood. They are routinely used in hospitals to help providers make...

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST: The common fingertip devices that measure oxygen in the blood are increasingly finding their way into people's homes because of the COVID-19 pandemic. These pulse ox devices can sometimes give misleading readings, though, in people with dark skin. That's according to a new study. NPR science correspondent Richard Harris reports. RICHARD HARRIS, BYLINE: When Detroit's hospitals started to overflow with COVID patients earlier this year, some patients ended up at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. And as Dr. Michael Sjoding started treating this influx of largely...

Angus Mordant / Bloomberg via Getty Images Originally published on December 16, 2020 1:24 pm The common fingertip devices that measures oxygen in the blood can sometimes give misleading readings in people with dark skin, according to a report Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine. These devices, called pulse oximeters, are increasingly finding their way into people's homes, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. So, this is not just a concern for medical personnel using professional-grade devices. Dr. Michael Sjoding and colleagues at the University of Michigan hospital in Ann A...

Researchers looked at readings of pulse oximeters, which measure oxygen levels, of black patients and white patients  In 12% of cases for black patients, they were discrepancies that showed normal oximeter readings, but low levels when a blood test was performed These same discrepancies only occurred in 3% of cases among white patients Previous studies have found that pulse oximeters are more likely to be inaccurate in people with darker skin pigmentation