Maybe a pulse oximeter is right for you

I got the following information from a NY Times op-ed piece written by a physician who has been practicing emergency medicine for 30 years and who teaches airway procedure courses worldwide.

While working at Bellevue recently, he found that almost all the ER patients had Covid pneumonia—even those who had no respiratory complaints. Many patients reported no sensation of breathing problems even though their chest X-rays showed pneumonia and their oxygen was below normal. It turns out that Covid pneumonia initially appears to cause a form of “silent hypoxia.” (Hypoxia is a deficiency in the amount of oxygen reaching tissues.) The coronavirus attacks lung cells that make surfactant, a substance that helps the air sacs in the lungs stay open between breaths and is critical to normal lung function. (Detergent is a surfactant. As my high school chemistry teacher told us, it makes water wetter by breaking surface tension.)

Even though their oxygen levels have fallen, patients don’t feel short of breath. That’s because they compensate for the low oxygen in their blood by breathing faster and deeper, but without realizing they’re doing it (the “silent’ in silent hypoxia). Their lungs are not yet stiff or heavy with fluid and they can expel carbon dioxide. Without ta buildup of carbon dioxide, patients don’t feel short of breath. Normal oxygen saturation at sea level is 94 to 100 percent; that of Covid patients seen by the writer were an alarming 50 percent. By the time they have noticeable trouble breathing and dangerously low oxygen levels, many require a ventilator.

 The writer believes a pulse oximeter could provide an early warning of silent hypoxia. Pulse oximeter are those devices you see on patients’ fingers. You can buy them at the pharmacy or elsewhere for around $30.00. But don’t go off half-cocked with this. The devices are not 100 percent accurate; you might misinterpret the readout; some people might have unrecognized chronic lung problems, and so forth. But if you’re feeling ill and wonder if you might have the virus, it might be worth checking into.

Note that Trump did not suggest this. Not by the time of this writing, anyway. If nothing else, you can use the device to play doctor.

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.