Why measures Spo2?

• To measure patient’s arterial oxygenation (SaO2) to detect

hypoxemia.
• Hypoxemia means lower than normal blood oxygenation.

• The arterial saturation plays an important role whether the body or

tissue is properly oxygenated.
• SaO2 measured by pulse oximetry is called as SpO2.
The principle of SpO2measurement
• The amount of red and infra-red light that passes through a finger, for example,
tells about the amount of oxygenated hemoglobin (O2Hb) and reduced
hemoglobin (RHb).
SpO2 % = O2Hb / (O2Hb + RHb)
• Maximum= 100% saturation,
indicating all Hb that can carry O2 is
in use
• Normal values: 95-100%
• The target is to monitor arterial oxygen saturation
• Arterial blood is “light red” and is pulsating
• Venous blood is “dark red” and ideally non-pulsatile
• Pulse oximetry is a technique to determine the pulsating blood’s
“color”. SpO2measures light absorption in tissue, generally by 2-
wavelengths spectrophotometry.
• The “blood’s color” is converted to arterial oxygen saturation via a
calibration function in the SpO2 algorithm.
Simplified representation of oxygen exchange
from the lungs to the blood.
Simplified representation of the loading and
unloading of a hemoglobin with oxygen
Comparison Study