COPD and Your Oxygen Saturation
Posted by admin - 09/07/09 at 10:07 amPeople who have COPD share a series of symptoms, typically shortness of breath, a continuos cough and “abnormal sputum” which is a mix of saliva and mucus in the airway. This is also reflected in simple daily activities such as walking, carrying something, and so on.
The problem is that the disease is affecting how much air a person can inhale and exhale, and how fast air can move into and out of the lungs. In simple terms this relates to the amount of oxygen the person is effectively obtaining and therefore how much oxygen is present in the blood (oxygen blood saturation).
The oxygen blood saturation can be monitored and measured. People without respiratory problems have between 95% and 98% oxygen blood saturation – and the oxygen therapy a COPD patient receives aims for those percentages.
For years we have become used to taking our own temperature at home, people suffering from diabetes can also self-monitor their sugar levels and the same thing for hypertension. Well, COPD patients can now also measure their oxygen levels with devices called “pulse oximeters”.
A pulse oximeter works by measuring the oxygen level in our blood and it does this by shooting two beams on different wave lengths through the fingertip or ear lobe (as it allows the light to go through). Hemoglobin with oxygen reflects differently than non-oxygenated. This allows for a reading that provides the saturation level. It reads both the oxygen saturation and the pulse.
One of the benefits are that it is a non-invasive form of measuring oxygen saturation as compared to reading a blood sample.
There are different models with different applications. One of the more convenient ones is a battery powered finger pulse oximeter. The finger is placed in the appropriate slot and the measuring begins. This is a very practical model for both patients and caretakers because of its simplicity and because of its non-invasive characteristics.
