Pulse Oximeters; An Amazing Use of Light
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ค. 2024
- You might have been seeing a lot about these little devices lately. Have you ever wondered how they work? Well, let's find out!
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You state that you're not a medical professional- yet you know the proper location of blood. Such a humble chap.
XD
for a second i thought he was going to explain the circulatory system and how capillaries work or something, but what i got was far more insightful
So wise in the ways of science
Hahah
Honestly he could make a video that's 100% BS and we'd believe him.
8:05: I was an EMT. If someone is wearing fingernail polish you have to perform a secret medical procedure called "turning the clip sideways".
Y no carry acetone?
@@NineEyeRon Ain't got time for that. Sideways or toe method is quick and usually available. Sometimes the toe is not available, but that's why the EMT is there.
Good solution as well as clipping the sensor to an earlobe. However, in 30 years as an anesthesiologist I can't remember a single case of nail polish causing an oximeter failure. Cold fingers or hypotension - yes, nail polish - no.
You can also use what my hospital calls a sticker. I’ll stick it right to you.
That sounds so painful.
I'm never getting sick ever again.
I love how this channel feels like something you’d watch as a kid on PBS
Maybe he is on PBS(idk what PBS is exactly, sounds like a public broadcast channel like here in Germany with ZDF and ARD)
@@Tobi_DarkKnight yup. It literally means Public Broadcasting Service. I remember it having lots of educational content
His fashion (Which I love) is a contributing factor, but yes he has a PBS tone overall .
@@Car_D_Board Also the name of the channel, to be honest
1000%
My pulse oximeter saved my life. I'm a pilot, which is the primary reason I owned one. But a few months ago, and about 4 months after I had an Achilles tendon surgery, I was feeling woozy when I stood up from working on something on the ground, and it didn't resolve like "orthostatic hypotension" (BP drop from standing). When I got home, amongst other things like checking my BP, I put on the pulse oximeter. When it showed 84%, I knew something was very wrong. Turned out I had a bilateral pulmonary embolism, probably from the surgery. Walked into the ER and they went nuts when they saw my CT scan...people don't walk in with that size clot, they arrive mostly (or totally) dead. I caught it before the last bit of blood was blocked from my lungs, and that was completely because I saw my SPO2 as way lower than it usually is for me.
Yes, the devices are cheap...and boy am I glad I had one.
You are very,very lucky.And strong too.
Thats an amazing story. How are you holding up now?
Really hard to overstate just how lucky you are. Many PE cases are dead within half an hour.
"If you know a thing or two about blood, You'll probably know that in general it should be inside your body and not outside of it"
Don't you give me medical advice regarding where I position my blood Mr. Not a Doctor.
Yeah, no one can tell me whether I can take a blood bath or not!
Dr. Goor
I am reminded of a rooster teeth animated adventure about blood outside the body
Alec is also not a bricklayer, nor an escalator, nor a coal miner, nor a Vulcan...
As a transfusion scientist, I'm glad that not all blood is inside people and I would encourage more people to get their blood out from inside, in a controlled setting of course.
As an academic in this exact technology, with a PhD and journal publications in pulse oximetry and it's fundamental technology of photoplethysmography, I personally applaud this video. It is to the point, and with all the jargon free facts about how it works and brief history that anyone curious needs. I do teach about this technology (as a biomedical engineering academic and researcher) and I think this presentation is by far one of the best I have ever seen by a self professed non-professional in the subject. As a spring-board to further teaching in this area I may be using this in my future lectures. Thank you!
As a side note, I would like to add that I have had personal contact and albeit brief correspondence with the inventor, Dr. Aoyagi. And sadly report that he sadly passed away earlier this year in April. To Dr. Aoyagi, thank you for what you have given the world. A truly remarkable piece of technology!
How is the perfusion index derived from a pulse ox ?
-70s / 80s rock music superstar, astrophysicist- international superstar auto review TV presenter, journalist, notorious Casanova with the ladies, AND a medical doctor specializing in biomedical engineering! Is there anything you CAN'T do?
(I always mix up James and Brian May) ;)
Brian May is the rock guitarist/astrophisicist
James May is the TV show presenter.
Couldn't agree more. When I heard his disclaimers I was waiting for the let down, thinking he may not be able to really dive into the most significant caveats such as CO poisoning and the need for specialized devices. Was so impressed to hear all of the high points nailed. The entire video is elegant from a teaching perspective.
I love how supposed subject matter experts with lots of pieces of paper declaring their worth use a completely random source of information to teach their students. Academics are such a scam.
Jon G sounds like you’re bitter
As an EMT, I appreciate and like this video. I especially like the idea that you reinforced, which is often stated as "Treat the patient, not the numbers." The note about the false reading in a case of CO poisoning is especially good as an example of that. Well done, and well prepared. I would echo your advice to get trained and get the knowledge you need to know what you're doing.
Good word
So anyone living or working in a potentially high CO area, enclosed usually, should be using a standalone High CO Warning Device.
I’m not an expert, but say, using combustion device heaters, is a most common need. RVs typically use propane heaters so they have CO Monitoring.
@@BoneBurglar The Learning never Ends,
so wonder:
May i recommend anyone some nice science-channel
and education-channel one may not yet know?
Yes, a very random question, sure, but why not?
I think Science-Fans should more often recommend each other more stuff,
so an Echo-Chamber is never created.
@@stephenpowstinger733 yes
Yessir EMT here too. Treat the patient
Anesthesiologist (MD) here; great video, also wanted to input that the Pulse Ox is probably 80% responsible for bringing surgical anesthesia from one of the riskiest medical specialties in the 1970's to arguably the safest (by a few metrics), today. In other words, the POx has more than any other technology, resulted in fewer deadly and injurious complications from surgery since it's widespread acceptance in the 1980's. It's also brought our malpractice insurance premiums down to amongst the lowest in all of medicine :).
Thanks again for the vid
But how?
@@kichapps Not a doctor, but I imagine using a pulse oximeter would allow you to check whether or not you should stop giving them anesthesia, instead of being based on guessing.
@@nerd_nato564 ah, I see. I didn't know that giving anesthesia required them to know the blood oxygen saturation
@@kichapps Idk, I'm just guessing that too much anesthesia might make your blood oxygen drop, I'm very likely wrong.
Because prior to its development, the oxygen saturation of the blood of anaesthetised patients couldn’t be measured or monitored in real time. It’s critical to know this in order to titrate the correct amount of anaesthetic agents, the amount of oxygen to give, and to know whether the patients CO 2 levels are in order . Interestingly the basic technology was first developed as long ago as the 1930’s
I'm always glad to see Closed Captioning Alex enjoying himself in the credits.
boopy doopy
@@dgpsf every time. it's worth it
Hahaha I had no idea this was a thing. Thanks for letting me know to turn on CC for the credits, now I have to go back and rewatch the other episodes :)
bah DAAAAAAAAAH
Don't write that word
Good lord man I am in love with this production quality.
You could make a 50 minute video on the history of power strip design, and as long as you put the time and effort you put into these I'd be there for the full 50.
We need more toaster videos!
I would watch the bejeezus out of a video about power strip design! Just sayin’.
Did you tune in to the CED series?
Check out his laserdisc series.
@@tjbautista01 Yes, that series was brillant.
And Greggory, I wouldn't be surprised if there is one on power stripe design in his back catalog. :-D
I remember back in the late 80's the inventor of the first portable version of this device used our fire department rescue squad in western NY to test the utility of the device for emergency care. The unit was the size of a briefcase. Now it fits entirely inside the finger sensor.
Measure o2 before you smoke your cigarette if you are a smoker then at the end of your cigarette you willl see a difference it will help you stop smoking
4:54 "Look at this Graph" - Nickelback, 2015
th-cam.com/video/sIlNIVXpIns/w-d-xo.html
Takes some damn skill to fit an awkward pause into a six-second video, lemme tell ya.
I'm so happy I'm not the only one who immediately thought about that. The only question is: Was it intentionally?
Lmaoo
First thing that came to mind when he said it. Glad I'm not the only one
“Heart thing” seems an imprecise term... I recommend the term “thumping squish”. Also see “thinking squish” for describing the mind organ.
@Page Fault self-regulating chemo-electric moderated positive displacement pump
And the thumping squish pumps life juice to all of your existence goo.
squishy thinking machine
666Tomato666 self regulating chemo-electric moderated positive displacement haematic transport device
And "squishy squish" for the fun times organs
"Quite useful"! Dude you are slightly underselling the impact of these things! I'm a doctor, and pulse oximetry has been massive. We are probably talking millions of lives saved. It has really changed patient care and is a major part of the reason surgery is a lot safer than it was 40 years ago. This little device isn't quite at "penicillin" level of big, but it is pretty darn close.
Wouldnt using arterial blood monitoring be pretty easy if you have someone in an operation room anyway?
@Phil Olivetti ...and I'm a lawyer and I advise the OP to sew you in court 'cause of defamation & slander & stuff!
(I get not more than a weeny 60%!! (Only this month!!))
anon video If you already have a catheter in the artery, maybe. But we usually use a BP cuff in the OR to keep things simple.
ABGs are technically difficult, painful, and if you mess up, there’s only one more artery supplying that hand. No thanks. Pulse Ox every time.
Also an MD (oncologist) and wanted to say this is without a doubt the best explanation of the pulse is I’ve ever heard. Do venous mappers next! I’m sure they work similarly and they’re fun to play with.
Pulse Oximeters are probably going to be medical useful for longer that penicillin ever was.
@@anonvideo738 No, and for two reasons. First a pulse-ox gives you beat by beat values of SpO2 where a full blood gas analysis takes time to obtain the blood and more time for the lab to process it. Second, with a blood gas, you have to obtain arterial blood which means sticking a needle or sometimes an cannula (think an I.V. but in an artery). While the complications of this are low they are certainly not as low as shining a light through a finger.
This is easily one of the best channels on TH-cam.
Edit: Also, we should be more grateful to the Phoenicians. They gave us so many wonderful things and we hardly mention them in History class.
It was because of a pulse oximeter that we knew to send my Aunt to the hospital while she had COVID. Her's was at 75% one night and a nurse told us it may come up and to keep an eye on her. The next day it was 47. We took her straight to the ER and she was put on a ventilator.
Then what happened?
Scary. I hope she's ok.
She should have been sent to the hospital at 75 percent. Damn I hope she recovered
Yea she should have gone when it read 75... I get worried when my patients are reading at 90.
If you sold this show on VHS I would buy it. So interesting
I'm more of a LaserDisc guy myself
Making VHS is very time consuming. Especially today when VHS is deprecated.
@@james.lambert i would prefer a CED version
Betamax would be better
Mr. Plinket?
“He was upset with himself” 😂🤣💀 always love the outtakes
And check that part with subtitles, it's even better.
hi there hi there hi there hi there hi there hi there hi there hi there hi there hi there hi there hi there
@@RobCamp-rmc_0 I was having flashbacks from "The Critic" BUY MY BOOK BUY MY BOOK BUY MY BOOK
This man knows humor. He is not hillarious but he does not try to be. Yet he knows how to slip in thr perfect joke and more importanly knows how much time to spend on it.
Also none of his jokes are edgy, or memes. Which is surprisingly refreshing.
I'm a hospice nurse and I use that exact pulse oximeter everyday. One thing that doesn't get brought up often is that they can read 1-2% higher on darker skin tones because they were calibrated on light skinned people and melanin will absorb some amount of light, tricking the sensor into believing there's more hemoglobin. This is rarely an issue that would affect a clinical decision, but it is one way that technology can be designed to accidentally overlook people who are non-white.
That's a really interesting thing I'd never considered! Does that mean there are fancier ones that look at skin color and take that into account, or something like that?
@@KevinCrouch0 Unfortunately no, but there are some universities working on it. The problem is that these would require more sensors and more light which could cause them to be very expensive. Even if one is created and is economical, knowing the medical industry it will be 15-20 years before they're widely adopted lol
Could is just be as simple as training on deployment - -3% for dark skin? The human element is the most important tool@@RogueAstro85
Ah, nothing says we’re still living in a world with glaring blindspots in medicine like neglecting to study any people other than white men. Classic humanity. Making wonderful things, but never questioning our biases.
I took a class this semester where we designed a very rudimentary pulse oximeter using some fancy analog circuitry, and for the final write up we had to talk about some ethical considerations, and I actually chose to write about this. There are some decently disturbing studies about this--I believe there was some evidence that this discrepancy was enough to disqualify some people with darker skin tone from receiving the care they needed during the pandemic, and thus they incurred higher causalities.
I saw the title of the video and happily reported out loud to no one, 'I think they're super cool, too! I like this guy!' It makes me smile to know there are others of us who feel this way. Thanks for bringing us together with videos!
"oxygenatedly smooth jazz"
i love the CC
me too, it makes me that is not a native english speaker understand better the video, this is more helpfull than it seems...
I agree, the Closed Captioning is the best I've seen on TH-cam ever.
Also boopydoopy :)
actually it is not jazz
Not only are the captions helpful, but there are some real hidden gems in some videos closed caption haha
I am pleased and not at all surprised to find that Technology Connections, with his low-key excellent comedic delivery, also has hilarious closed captions. Too bad I usually just listen to videos and don't watch much, if at all, but that just means there's replay value!
As a biomedical engineer and a long term fan, I applaud your simple but great explanation. I think, I'll link my students to this video.
Also, looking forward to an fMRI machine explanation :-D
The MRI is quiet simply powered by black magic. Any professional in the field worth their salt ougth to know this.
3:47 Cracked me up really hard... BLOOD
Same lmaoooooo, the delivery is perfect. "It comes out red on the other side because... BLOOD"
@@thunder____ so unexpected 😂👌
I had to watch it a few times because I kept laughing out loud by myself!
As a mountain First responder (Ski patron and mountain guide), these devices sometimes don't like the cold. This is generaly solved by putting the victims glove back on (a bit) over the device, or putting hand inside jacket. A warmer device (and warmer hand) give a more accurate reading. And as you say they are an excellent device.
Medical Assistant here. I use one of these nearly everyday when preparing patients for their visit with the healthcare provider. Thank you so much for this video as I can now more clearly explain how the device works for the occasional curious patient.
Just send em over to this video
11:26 When the cd starts skipping
So annoying!
I was thinking a vinyl record personally, but that could be showing my age 😆
The picture skips as well, so it was most likely a CED
I think Max Headroom has more panache. ;)
"Thanks to that heart thing in your chest cavity"
- Technology Connections 2020
The Learning never Ends,
so wonder:
May i recommend anyone some nice science-channel
and education-channel one may not yet know?
Yes, a very random question, sure, but why not?
I’m an electrical engineer. I still find this channel on everyday sort of items (if everyday can mean decades ago) very interesting. Keep up the good work!
"You can shine light through your fingers."
Glad to hear childhood me wasn't the only one who made that observation.
"You were a child once"...unless you're a synth.
i do it almost once a week just for fun, and i'm 31
my tool of choice was laser pointers
Who didn't stand in front of a mirror with a flashlight in his mouth, shiny end inwards. :-D
I used to do the finger thing at 3:44 and pretend to be E.T.!
"Various unpleasantness" is such a useful phrase nowadays.
I read that with a lisp
A lot of the COPD/respiratory patients I've worked with are absolutely OBSESSED with their O2 saturation. Like, they check it every 30 seconds. EXCELLENT disclaimer that it's an extremely useful tool but not for everyone. Thank you, Alec for your thoroughness!
I was wondering how my Fitbit knows my heart rate (accurately enough to match what's measured at my doctor office, give or take a couple bpm). I figured it had to do with the weird flashing light on the bottom but other than that, it just seemed to be magic. I'm guessing it's a variant on this tech! Thank you!
It's very similar to these but instead of measuring the light passing through, it measures the light reflected back. I believe that's part of why they're not quite as accurate
@@sheafromME explains why it's green
“All my bleeding was internal. That's where the blood's supposed to be!”
I always keep a couple of litres in a bucket, in the fridge, next to the heads.
@@davelordy Bloody Mary, much?
@@philipcooper8297 I didn't catch her first name.
Jake Peralta
One of my favourite quotes from that show.
Ah, the PulseOxy, one of my favorite tools as an ER nurse. Thanks for the explanation how it works, I knew already that its an optical method, but the exact method was news to me.
Oh, and the info that CO also makes nice red Hemoglobin is way more advanced knowledge than your humble disclaimers indicate. How many in my field simply don't know that, to predictably bad outcomes. BTW one of the (many) reasons you shouldn't smoke before operations; it makes this method of monitoring unreliable...
Those of us old enough to remember the movie Coma, know that CO poisoning keeps blood nice and red looking.
fascinating. someone i know has a smartwatch with spo2 and they insist the readings prove their smoking isn't affecting their oxygen intake ... now i have a new piece of knowledge lol, it can't actually tell CO from O2
@@kaitlyn__L It can't tell it apart AND CO hangs on MUCH longer on the Hb, so the reading will be higher. That's a common way to find out if someone has an sub-acute CO poisoning in persons without hobbies like deep-diving or mountaineering: Usually they will show a constant 100% SpO2 without breathing heavy or fast and without obvious problems in consciousness. This should always ring the alarm bell in experienced ER personnel resulting in a Blood-Gas Analysis to measure the severity.
@@kaitlyn__L Someone's not doing his/her homework. Any smoker knows of the substantial increase in CO and its high affinity for Hb.
I just hope Apple doesn't get sued because of this particular misunderstanding, e.g. someone's CO alarm is not working properly, they think their respiration is working fine because of how they interpret an oximeter reading, and then perish from CO poisoning.
Hint - why not call the reading bound Hb % instead of oxygenated Hb %, at least for the cheap ones that can't tell CO from O2?
@@coopergates9680 bound Hb% would unfourtunatly also be misleading, as there is also MetHb, HHb and simply CO2Hb, all of them stuff bounded to Hb. But you are right, the term oxygenated Hb is more highly misleading, gives false confidence and should be avoided when you use the optical measurement.
One of the best TH-cam channels. Straight to the point, no blathering on about nonsense, no sales pitches, funny jokes but not obnoxious, smart and most importantly, he doesnt add sappy, loud background music all over the video. These are the reasons why this channel has nearly 2 million subs. ps, FUCK BACKGROUND MUSIC.
I am a techy (at least I thought so before watching your channel) and I am totally enjoying watching you refreshing my thinking cap. Keep going!! You're doing great!! And the bloopers at the end of each video are so funny it makes all these videos down to our level. I really appreciate you making the point that it takes a lot, LOTS, of goof-offs before you get awesomeness. Cheers!!
10:20 Damn I was sure this was going to turn into a skillshare ad.
Me too. After a dramatic pause there is always a Skillshare or Foursquare ad.
I’m glad he doesn’t do those kinda sponsors
Or Brilliant, when he mentioned applied knowledge!
Probably was then he lost the sponsorship
@@jacksong6226 yeah no why? Im with Sid
7:37 Thank you so much for this video. I work for OSHA and have developed a mathematical model for predicting exposure to carbon monoxide based and data from devices like this and/or blood lab results but I never knew how they worked. Thanks again.
That sound's interesting! Is this mathematical model applicable to a sequence of SpO2 readings for a single person? To have that estimated from data we already have would be a nice addition to those of use who like to track our health with smartwatches and other wearables!
bless you, OSHA worker phillip. truly one of the best parts of the government
Lol. This guy writes regulations on things for OSHA that he doesn't know about.... this is a problem.
Actually, @@crispy9175, he creates mathematical models based off *data* from the device, which in no way requires he understand the function of the device, simply mathematics and data modelling. I'm sure there are *plenty* of medical professionals who can perfectly operate machinery of which they do not fully understand the internal mechanics, yet I don't see you calling for the mass re-consideration of the medical field's standards. In fact, I imagine you likely drive a car, but don't understand how it works in its entirety. Should we revoke your license until you can prove 100% knowledge of a car's functions? It's almost like you didn't actually read what Phillip wrote, and instead knee-jerk reacted to the mere acronym "OSHA" because your conservative overlords have convinced you if the government does it, then it must be bad. Maybe take some reading comprehension classes and try again. ^.^
Some manufacturers of pulse oximeters use different parameters like measuring 3 signals at once or using the entire color spectrum, aside from red and white.
Can you do a video on those 'light-guns' that they use to take your temperature for the Covid-19 testers?
They're infrared cameras. If there's any light coming out of them, it's just in order to aim it more easily.
I've been working in the healthcare field for a couple of years now, and I've always been a little curious as to how pulse oximeters actually work. Also, yes it's very true that nail polish can interrupt the reading, it's a pretty common trick at my workplace that if someone has nail polish, you actually put the oxmiter on sideways on the finger so the polish doesn't change the reading.
"Our body is filled with sensors!"
*cries in first year of med school*
TheMrFabian1 so, so many.
Dunno about you but phisiology is a second year subject here.
@@randombloke82 Excuse my ignoramce but isn't that somewhat true? Dont we have some sort of mechanisms that translate these external inputs into chemical reactions that derive to the information our brains get? And can't those be refered to as "sensors" or "receptors"?
@@Vits2001 The word you are thinking of is transducer.
@@Vits2001 Yes, but receptors are only a part of that operation.
I'm a phonetician and I was SO stoked by your t-shirt and that you were talking about the way we interpret speech. Then I reread it and realized no one ever thanks the phonetician.
congratulations for your channel, the detail of the content, editing and strong effort you put into each chapter, makes this channel a must for retro and electronic enthusiast
You know, the blooper reel at the end makes the videos that much better. You really get to see all the effort you put in, and they're usually good for a few laughs. Keep it up, I love all the unique, obscure, and random topics I get to learn about!
I like the "boopydoopy" and the "be bah da daaaahhh" etc. in the subtitles at the end!
Oxygenatedly smooth jazz
I'm somewhere in the middle of nowhere with a limited data cap, but when I see a Tech Connections video, I click.
F
Just use wi-fi then, if you have a data cap
Make sure to screen record that
@@dkt6408 I can't tell if you're joking, or if you read that wrong
Say hi to Courage for me.
My son was born with a heart defect and pulse oximeters are now part of our daily life. I've since wondered how on earth a light tells us such important information. Thank you for such a brilliant and to the point video!
Software dev here, greatly appreciate the video and the qualifiers about pulse ox's not being perfect sensor solutions. I've been working on an experimental medical monitor trying to get decent HR, SpO2, respiration, etc outputs. This video was helpful in breaking down how the majority of sensor's I've handled work, while I'm trying to replicate their outputs. At one point I had a pulse ox with bluetooth that I could communicate with to compare signal quality, but those are hard to come by and harder to write software around, from what I've gathered. The one in my Nintendo Switch's Joycon IR sensor tends to reads my heartrate maybe ~10-20 bpm higher than the medical device pulse ox, so I've been anxiously pondering the degree to which other monitors handle unexpected/noisy Red + IR input.
For my entire childhood, (every year from birth until my late teens), I was admitted to hospital at least once a year after an asthma attack. I had to wear a Pulse Oximeter the whole time and became fascinated by it's red glow. They were often the arbiter on whether I was allowed to go home even after I felt fine and my breathing was normal: so many times I remember being told "It hasn't been above 95 for long enough today, so you have to stay another night"... I have an oddly bittersweet love of them to this day. Thanks for the video.
your friendly neighborhood Respiratory Therapist could come in every 4 hours and draw an ABG instead. ( That said, depending on a lot of other factors, I'd have sent you packing with 95%!)
"Now I am not a healthcare professional of any sort and have no qualifications to be giving medical advice whatsoever." Shame more people can't seem to grasp this basic concept, especially given the current circumstances.
I was about to point out the same thing. At no point when I saw this video in my feed I thought, "Oh I can't wait till he tells me how to medically use this device!" Instead my thought process was,"Oh! New TC! It's something about a light doohikie! Can't wait to see how it works from an engineering prospective."
I mean if you think you might need one medically... you might want to go see your local doctor, not your local Tech Y0utuber heh.
Big disclaimer on a video about sensors to avoid the censors.
@white ehhh gonna have to hard disagree.
the difference to use your analogy is in someone who spent 8 years studying and working on your exact model car. And then you expecting to be better than them at fixing it
Your comment is unfortunately relevant.
@white either you're trolling, or you need to be restrained.
Thank you so much for such a concise and coherent explanation of pulse oximeters. I've always wondered how they work. It's amazing to think that this everyday piece of technology applies the same leap of logic that allowed humans to figure out what the stars are made of.
i've been binging your videos lately, they are just so good! i appreciate the genuine passion and love for technology
The “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” reference was beautiful
Yup, here for this. Set phasers to stunning.
“Sen-sores” -Spock
Not to be confused with a censor, scents or, censer.
make it so. engage. elementary.
🤔Fascinating!
♫ "Last Christmas I gave you that heart-thing in my chest cavity." ♫
Literally in the movie
In this part of the country, it's called a pulse-ox. Mine shows a pulsing line, like you might see on a real heart monitor. However, not surprisingly, they are not considered very accurate for showing your heart's actual activity and are not generally considered diagnostic tools. Nonetheless, it can still be useful. I had complained to doctors for a few years about having occasional arrhythmia, but my heart was always on it's best behavior while at the doctor's office. I had both an electrocardiogram and an echocardiogram. I even wore a heart monitor for 48 hours. And, you guessed it, my heart preformed like a champ for both of the tests as well as the entire time I was wearing the monitor. So, one day, when my heart was messing up, I used the camera on my phone to record the tracings on the pulse-ox, and sent those to the doctor. My heart was being particularly naughty that day -- I'm guessing it didn't know about the pulse-ox heart graph and the camera on my phone. I sent my doctor a lot of images. Unknown to me, my doctor forwarded the images to a cardiologist who provided a diagnosis and a plan for treatment. Thus, a pulse-ox with a graph can actually be used as a diagnostic tool -- even if that's a bit unusual and unorthodox.
I’m a recently retired respiratory therapist, and I remember when pulse oximeters came out and they were HUGE! (About the size of the first VCRs 1’ high, 2’ wide, 2’ deep). Now look at them! I believe that they could be made smaller, but they’re easy enough to lose the way they are. Additionally, I think that they were first developed for the Air Force as they’re planes were flying higher and higher and they were having difficulties with pilots passing out from low oxygen levels.
I broke my hip three weeks ago - I've had scores of different versions of these hanging off my various digits since then. So, this video is nicely timed.
I especially hate the one with the sticky tape.
Tell me more of your... various digits.
That sucks! Hope your recovery goes smoothly!
Hope you heal quickly!
About ten years ago, I observed to my mother that while we don't have the flying cars we were promised, I had just spent two hours' pay to buy a device that measured the oxygen in my blood by shining a laser through my fingernail. And it runs on a AAA battery. "How Buck Rogers is that?"
It's... not really a laser.
@@Sakkura1 Shhhhhhhh
@@Sakkura1 If those kids could read, they would be very upset.
We do have flying cars... just not that many yet... anyway we now have electric cars.... that should count for something...
@@PR-fk5yb isn't it technically possible to make flying cars, but just that it'd be very inefficient and expensive or something
Excellent job! I really appreciate explaining the weakness in a two-wavelength oximeter. There are many others but that is a big one depending on the circumstances.
11:10 ♫ oxygenatedly smooth jazz ♫
“When demand hasn’t peaked”... you ain’t lyin’! I bought this exact same Oxymeter on Amazon last year for about $12. It now sells for more than three times as much - thanks to this pandemic thing that’s going around I guess.
People pay way too much for electronic trinkets (ie. smartphones, ipads, etc) compared to medical equipment. It's a thankless job designing medical equipment. I wish I could put a credit card reader on all the medical devices I've designed, especially with covid! I've been working for charity and been trying to find "greener pastures". But like actors in Hollywood, one gets typecast and I cannot get out of this socialized field. I am back with my decades of expertise in oximetry working in a startup, dozens of patents where I don't get a dime of royalty, yet making a mediocre salary for this expertise. All the while Google, Facebook, etc employees rake in the bucks for pushing money around. So with Covid needs, ventilators, respiratory, and ICU equipment, don't expect them because the scientists and engineers have gone into the much more profitable realm of Google, Facebook, and other tech. Thank Obama for destroying many medical devices and promoting the profiteering likes of silicon valley and pharma. I truly wish I didn't go into the field and help save billions of lives (yes billions) as I am now struggling to pay mortgage & bills.
@@rchn1315 Did you just claim to be a specialist in the field of oximetry that can't get a job in a different field, blamed Obama for it, and then said you saved billions (with a B) of lives?
Bruh, you're one "kiddo" away from being a copypasta
@@rchn1315 Who are you? What is your name - if you have "decades of expertise in oximetry", I may remember you. I began working on pulse oximetry technology - both design development and manufacturing - back in 1983. Although this video explains some of the underlying technology, it is not quite accurate in its description of the function of the two LEDs. But, at least it attempts to provide some pretty useful information on its application. Before our oximeter, blood would have to be drawn for analysis. There was a critical need for "real-time" blood gas monitoring - especially in the OR. We were the first to provide this capability. If you are interested in making a better paycheck, get out of product development engineering, and work in sales/marketing - that's where the money is. Throughout most of my career, I have rarely ever been "recognized" or compensated for my contributions - now, in retirement, at least I can look back and feel a strong sense of professional accomplishment - even if only known to myself and my wife. I never made a lot of money, but certainly enough to pay the rent. There are other personal satisfactions to be earned through a successful career besides the money.
@@wyleyg as a useless human being myself I thank you for your time and hard work to make life better.
@@rchn1315 cap
Oh, so that's how they work. As I'm doing a Chemistry PhD in organometallic chemistry, I know all about the theory but I hadn't realised that's how it does it. Cool.
I had the same reaction, except it was "I did a home sleep study and had to put my finger into one of those, and didn't understand what it could possibly be doing with just a little red light"
i mean aside from gently cutting off my circulation. I bet it was reading pretty poor oxygenation by morning.
wow, simply wow, i've been years taking care of my mother and use one of this pulse oximeters pretty much a lot through the day and night (she usually has normal readings below 85%spO2 and sometime lower than 65%, so i apply medical oxigen to her to even the oxigen levels as she has
pulmonary fibrosis acompanied by other medical illnesses) i always knew what this devices do, but now i know how it does the readings, so thanks a lot this helped me comprehend more about it.
I love hiking in Colorado so I definitely want one. Going from sea level in Louisiana to 14k feet (Mt. Elbert for instance) takes one HELL of a toll on your breathing and oxygen levels 🥴
“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants." - Sir Issac Newton
Keep in mind this remark of Newton’s is a barbed insult aimed at Robert Hooke, a competing physicist of short stature, thus not a Giant.
inversesquare.wordpress.com/2008/03/07/friday-isaac-newton-blogging-on-the-shoulders-of-giants-or-revenge-is-a-dish-best-eaten-cold-edition/
"Isaac," I bear his name and hardly none of y'all can spell it right.
@@IsYitzach "Ice Ache"
This has rapidly become one of my favorite channels to watch.
The scatting at the end was priceless. Captions are just as good as the audio.
I was a child and I did shine a flashlight on my fingers... well played sir.
I'm waiting for the day where at the end of the video you raise your arms and burst in glee shouting "one take" just like tom scott. it's so heartwarming seeing that
These devices have saved my, my parents, and may people's asses many times. One of the biggest under rated tools on the market.
PS:
Dad had failing lungs, and my mother has a failing heart. Both where easily picked up by it.
I am a copd patient, and since I've gotten one of these it has been a godsend. It helps keep me aware when I'm exerting myself, and can help me catch respiratory illness or an asthma flare before they become acute, which decreases the potential for hospitalization.
I work in the medical field, and I always call these the "finger thingy."
...does it go to the machine that goes "ping"...? :P
As a biomed (repairer of medical equipment), I know what you meant. :p
@@AttilaAsztalos no that's on the boomers (ballistic missile submarines hehe). In a hospital you find the machine that goes 'beep'.
@@AttilaAsztalos That is quietest of the annoying beepy machines, thankfully.
@@xmlthegreat And sometimes you also have the wosh wooosh.
Modern medicine and the tech it uses are the biggest achievements in the history of humanity, and my respect for the people working in all areas of both is immeasurable.
Fun Fact! Samsung's newer phones actually include a Pulse Oximeter next to the rear facing cameras! So you can actually get a reading of your heart rate and blood O2 levels from your phone, anytime!
As a pilot, I can confirm that hypoxia is bad for you.
Hahahaha 😂😂
Good to know.
As an hypoxic person, I can confirm that airplanes are imaginary.
Same with diving and flying in the same day.
As a person who can read (and enjoys living), I too can confirm that hypoxia is bad for you.
This is the channel I never knew I needed but now I can't live without!
Welcome to the club!
Finally a very clear lesson about this device. Never knew how it worked. As a former Air Force and commercial pilot, this would be helpful in determining hypoxia.
Another amazing and very simple demonstration of how our little helper devices work. Thank!
Aw.
I was *_so_* looking forward to watching you hold your breath, to demonstrate the coolness of the device, that I watched all the way to the very end.
Something I rarely do.
And then you went right ahead and...
*_...DIDN'T DO IT !_*
>
I have a cheap pulseox. Have had it for well over a year now (cheap one from Lidl, but still having a fun oled screen with choice of display modes). How come I've never tried this, until just now?!
@@MattFowlerBTR AND?!?!
I wouldn't think it'd register much, actually. It's not the oxygen level that gets you, rather it's the buildup of CO2 in your bloodstream that triggers the urge to breathe. Unless you've trained yourself to hold your breath for extended periods, which I'd think, logically, is training yourself to suppress the urge to breathe because of to CO2 elevation, as simultaneously your blood oxygen level also will obviously fall.
@@mlindholm yep, healthy adults deoxygenate fairly slowly (relative to your urge to breathe). On top of that, most healthy adults oxygen saturation sits a decent amount above the level where you feel effects to start with (aka become hypoxic)
I just tried it with my Samsung phone that has an Oximeter built in. Breathing like normal I had a score of 99% (did the test 5 times just to make sure, and it was always within 98-99%), but breathing poorly and then holding my breath for half a minute it took the score down to 87%
mlindholm hint- when your kid’s pulse ox level drops to the low 80s, the ambulance driver drives faster. 🙁
11:26 HI THERE!
Hi there!
Hi there!
Hi there!
Hi there!
Hi There!
This is awesome but I have 1 tiny pedantic point. The pulse oximeter is NOT "telling you the heart rate". As you say, we want the saturation of the blood that is in the artery i.e the pulsing part, but other things can pulse (e.g. veins if you have some forms of heart disease, tissues for various reasons etc) and we need to make sure that the pulse ox is looking in the correct place. The reason it displays the heart rate is so that you can manually check the pulse and make sure it correlates with the pulse ox i.e. make sure that it seems to be looking at the right place to tell you the saturation. So it's not TELLING you the heart rate, it is actually ASKING if what it thinks is the heart rate actually IS. (Though of course, if you have checked it a few times and it is always correct then you can go on to use the displayed heart rate instead of taking the pulse.)
At the beginning of COVID I suggested to my friends and family that a portable pulse ox might be a good addition to a family medicine cabinet.
A few months ago an elderly family member was feeling off, remembered the pulse ox they had bought at my suggestion, and learned they were having a minor medical emergency that could easily have been much worse if they delayed care.
They’re very cool tools.
As necessary as a thermometer.
when you said "if you were ever a child (which, you were)" i was like "how do you know that??" before realising that i'm just dumb lol
"Gooood morning you are listening to WTFM morning show..." - How they know that!?
@@Karjis rly
Lots of video presenters say "see you next time" so I wouldn't be surprised if he actually *knew* you were a child once!
"boopy dooopy"
- TC, 2020
I don't know if anyone else has spotted this, but I love the fact that one of the patrons listed at the end of this video is a Mr. Endfinger! He's near the top at 12:03.
THANK YOU! I've not only experienced the pulse ox in the ER, but I've used one at home under doctor's orders for the past 8 years. You have no idea how many times, when checking my O2, I've wondered how the devil it works. You've explained it quite well!
I really love this channel. If all of TH-cam were to fall apart and I could pick only one, you bet it would be technology connections. It's the stuff I live for. Just getting to know how everyday tech we take for granted has had a lot of ingenuity put behind it tickles some sweet spot in my brain.
I was just wondering the other day why the finger oximeters could measure blood oxygen but phone cameras can't... I swear you read my mind sometimes! Thanks lol
Phone cameras have an IR filter. Well MOST EVERY digital camera has an IR filter. There's a One Plus one that deliberately doesn't, and it's somewhat notoriously in the news for it right now.
Posted to it's own comment, but responding to your question I saw afterwards. If you have a Samsung phone, many of them have had this ability built in, with sensors next to the camera flash. The Samsung Health app has a function to measure Heart Rate, and used to have an obvious option for Blood Oxygen. That's been moved/renamed to the Stress function, which records both, and optionally asks you to indicate your felt stress level.
The hardware exists in the Samsung Galaxy S5 / S5 Neo / S6 / S7 / S8 / S9 / S10 and Edge versions as well as Galaxy Note 4 / 5 / 7 / FE / 8, but isn't in the cheaper S10E, and was no longer included as of the Note 10 and Galaxy S20 models.
@@mlindholm Cool, I didn't know about that! I suppose it really is just down to what technology the manufacturers want to put in, and it's certainly possible to have, just not standard.
@@mlindholm It works a bit differently too, which I find interesting, because many smart watches and phones obviously cannot wrap around your finger. So instead of reading the light as it passes through your finger, it's looking at the reflection of light from inside your finger. You can find some 3rd party apps that give extremely detailed information on just how the sensors are being used to determine the oxygen saturation, plus some other interesting metrics, such as arterial stiffness, something I had never considered as a measurable thing before.
Edit: I did some research earlier too, and I found a lot of people said that Samsung's sensor gave pretty much identical readings to one of those dedicated sensors that clip onto your finger.
The Raspberry Pi has a cheap IR camera attachment you can buy. I’ve considered getting one, because IR photography is freaky cool
It’s kinda nerdy but also kinda respectable that you take the time to make it clear people shouldn’t take what you say as medical advise, epilepsy warnings, etc.
i really appreciate the blooper real. it shows that even well spoken and intelligent people trip up on words and sentences.
coming from a person that gets ignored because my brain go brrrr but my mouth doesn't, makes me stammer. you helped my self esteem a little today and I thank you for that.
also thank you for teaching me something new.
Here here for the Phoenicians!! Also, you never explicitly point out that it is a real time continuous reading, where as drawing blood would not be.
I wish I could ever say "Look at this chart!" with such excitement
This channel is brilliant for a whole host of other reasons, but the delivery on the line "If you were ever a child... which, *you were* " almost made me choke on my lunch it was so funny.
We call it a "pulse ox" in the field, Midwest EMT.
Can confirm.
We call it an ox in the field, Midwest farmer.
Look at this graph... instantly thinks of Nickelback vine
I almost sang it that way but opted not to
@@TechnologyConnections You should've.
th-cam.com/video/sIlNIVXpIns/w-d-xo.html
Technology Connections You should’ve that would’ve been funny as hell
"Look at this bloody graph"
In my first lab class as a biomedical engineer, we fabricated one of these with 2 pieces of wood, a green led paired with a photodiode, an op-amp to amplify the signal, and an oscilloscope to visualize the variation in the signal. I still remember it as a great example of building my first circuit and fabricating an entire project from scratch. As a mechanical engineer, I wish I had gotten more experience with electronics and circuit design but this was definitely a great highlight and blast through the past!
One week ago I was planning on buying a pulse oxymeter. It comes as an option with my 3 month OTC health insurance kit. Now, you upload a video about pulse oxymeters. Your timing is impeccable, sir.
I just want to say, for all the retakes you have to do, I really appreciate how professional the end result comes across.
I was so amazed when i learned how they work several years ago that since then i wanted to habe one for me, but they were very expensive and soecialized. Now that they become mainstrean (basic but mainstream) i got one for me and i really consider that they should be in a lot of homes with special needs (like elder people, asthma patients etc). The more information the healthcare professionals at the other end of the call have about the patients, the better.
In this case, I'd agree. But there _is_ such a thing as too much information-check out MedLife Crisis's video titled "Why Don't We Test for Everything".
Another use: when I hiked Mount Kilimanjaro, our guide had a pulse oximeter that we checked regularly to ensure that we were all safe. The slow introduction to altitude makes hypoxia less of a concern (though still possible), but altitude sickness is a very big concern with extended exposure. I doubt the oximeter would catch every case, but regardless we were checked regularly to ensure we were above a certain threshold with emergency oxygen and descent if we didn't. No one in our group needed it, though we did pass someone from another group who was being carried down from the final camp area and we were later told he didn't end up making it.