Relation between pulse oximetry and clinical score in children with acute wheezing less than 24 months of age

✍ Scribed by Dolores Pavón; Jose Antonio Castro-Rodríguez; Lilian Rubilar; Guido Girardi

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 43 KB
• Volume: 27
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 8755-6863
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0496(199906)27:6<423::aid-ppul10>3.0.co;2-5

✦ Synopsis

The aim of this study was to determine the relation between transcutaneous hemoglobin oxygen saturation, measured by pulse oximetry (SpO 2 ), and clinical score values in 138 infants (mean ± SD, 6.6 ± 5.5 months of age) with acute wheezing episodes presenting in a primary care outpatient setting. A single investigator evaluated the severity of the acute wheezing episodes by assigning a clinical score and was unaware of the SpO 2 values. Another investigator measured SpO 2 values on all subjects. The mean (± SD) SpO 2 value was 98.2 ± 1.1% for children with clinical scores of 2-5 (n = 32); 95.4 ± 1.5% for those with scores of 6-7 (n = 82), and 92.9 ± 2% for children with scores of 8-10 (n = 24), (P < 0.001 by Bonferroni's multiple comparison, when all two-way comparisons were done for each pair of results). The clinical score showed a good correlation with SpO 2 (r = -0.76; 95% CI, -0.83 to -0.68).

We conclude that if pulse oximetry is not available, it is advisable to include oxygen in the therapy of wheezy infants with clinical scores values Ն8.