A medical device that measures blood oxygen levels is more likely to give misleading or inaccurate results to black patients, according to research published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers analyzed data from thousands of adult patients who received supplemental oxygen at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor, and compared the data with that of 37,000 patients in the intensive care units of about 200 other hospitals.
The pulse oximeter worn on the fingers, they found, was more likely to return inaccurate results for black users based on comparisons of the data with a test involving arterial blood samples.
In the University of Michigan cohort, among patients who had an oxygen saturation of 92 to 96 percent on pulse oximetry, an arterial oxygen saturation of less than 88 percent was found in 88 of 749 arterial blood gas measurements in black patients and 99 of 2,778 measurements. in white patients, ”the study stated.
The devices are likely to be more widely used in recent months due to the coronavirus pandemic, the study notes. The research suggests that black Americans, disproportionately affected by the pandemic, may also be at increased risk for low blood oxygen levels in health care settings that rely on the devices to triage patients.
The devices shine a red light through the user’s fingertip, and for dark-skinned people, the device can give misleading results, Michael Sjoding, a pulmonologist who was the lead author of the study, told NPR.
The errors, he said, are about three times as common in black patients.
The inaccurate readings “don’t happen much, but when you consider how often these readings are taken, if it’s wrong 12 percent of the time, I worry it could really have an impact,” he said.