Carolyn Hendrickson, MD
Credit: ACC
Pulse oximeter estimates of blood oxygen saturation levels and traditional measurements of oxygen saturation in arterial blood significantly diverged by skin pigment in critically ill adults in the EquiOx study, according to new research presented at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) 2025 Annual Scientific Sessions.1
These data from a large prospective real-world study showed an overall bias toward an underestimate of blood oxygen with pulse oximeters, while people with darker pigmentation reported less negative bias and a greater risk of an overestimate, compared with a lighter pigment.
“Although pulse oximeter bias on average was negative for all people, it was less negative in the darkly pigmented people than in the people with…