Clipped to a fingertip, a pulse oximeter uses light beams to analyze your heart rate and the amount of oxygen being carried in your bloodstream. Normal levels in otherwise-healthy adults range between ...

Scientists have long known that pulse oximeters are less accurate when used for people with dark skin tones – and now, a new report offers some insight into just how much more inaccurate these ...

As an emergency medicine physician, Dr. Owais Durrani sees this issue regularly first-hand: When he clamps a pulse oximeter onto a patient's fingertip to measure their blood oxygen levels, the small ...

As a triple threat of respiratory illnesses – flu, Covid-19 and respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV – sweeps the United States, emergency departments are using one small tool more than usual to ...

A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee met Friday to figure out ways to make pulse oximeters more accurate when doing readings on darker skin both in hospitals and at home, after research ...

Fingertip monitors known as pulse oximeters that can be used at home to detect low blood oxygen levels (hypoxaemia) give higher readings for patients with darker than lighter skin tones, finds the ...

In the EXAKT study from the U.K., the home-use pulse oximeters assessed all gave higher oxygen saturation (SpO2) readings for patients with darker skin tones than for patients with lighter skin tones.

Pulse oximeters work by sending light beams through someone’s finger to estimate the oxygen saturation of their blood and their pulse rate. Ongoing research has found that if these devices are not ...