Concordance among measurements obtained by three pulse oximeters currently used by health professionals

Abstract

Introduction: Oxygen saturation is considered as the 5th vital sign. Presently, there exist fixed and wireless pulse oximeters, being the latter most widely used in the last years. Some of them have no possibility of calibration. This situation leads the health staff to adopt therapeutic attitudes which can be wrong. Therefore, it is extremely important to know if these wireless oximeters show a right concordance as regards measurements, since it is of great interest in daily clinical practice. Objective: To evaluate concordance among measurements obtained by three different pulse oximeters currently used by health professionals. Methods: This is an observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study related to the concordance of the results obtained in measurements collected by three different pulse oximeters (one monitor and two wireless oximeters) which are available and in use in this hospital unit. The sample size calculation was performed for a concordance above 0.81 and an estimation error which did not exceed 0.20. The intraclass correlation index (ICI) was used to establish the concordance whereas the Landis-Koch criteria were used to interpret the results. Systematic errors were analyzed using the Bland-Altman plot. Results: The overall concordance among the three pulse oximeters analyzed resulted in 0.88, a value considered as "good" according to the Landis-Koch criteria. Conclusion: The results obtained show that in daily clinical practice both wireless pulse oximeters analyzed can be used with a certain reliability, taking into account the limitations of this research.