BACKGROUND Chronic respiratory failure complicating sleep-disordered breathing in obese patients has important adverse clinical implications in terms of morbidity, mortality and healthcare utilisation. Screening strategies are essential to identify obese patients with chronic respiratory failure. METHOD Prospective data were collected from patients with obesity-related sleep-disordered breath...

BACKGROUND The traditional oxygen delivery methods for oxygen therapy are continuous flow oxygen (CFO) and demand oxygen delivery (DOD); however, oxygen waste is considerable in CFO, while DOD is uncomfortable for patients. Synchronized DOD (SDOD), which was designed to overcome the drawbacks of both CFO and DOD, supplies oxygen according to the patient's breathing pattern and the desired oxyge...

Pulse oximetry is dependent upon the presence of a pulsating vascular bed. Low pulsatile blood flow in the digits is caused by various factors. Regardless of the cause, if there is sufficient arterial pulse pressure, blocking the sympathetic nerve should cause a local increase in capillary flow and pulse volume. This study was performed to evaluate the effect of digital nerve block on pulse oxi...

Background: A portable monitor for the automated analysis of episodic nocturnal oxygen saturation or SpO2 (the Remmers Sleep Recorder, RSR) has been proposed for the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnoeahypopnoea (OSAH). A study was undertaken to compare the diagnostic performance of automated analysis with the manual scoring of polygraphic data by a more comprehensive respiratory monitor (the ...

OBJECTIVE Hypoxaemia is a strong predictor of mortality in children. Early detection of deteriorating condition is vital to timely intervention. We hypothesise that measures of pulse oximetry dynamics may identify children requiring hospitalisation. Our aim was to develop a predictive tool using only objective data derived from pulse oximetry and observed respiratory rate to identify children a...

OBJECTIVE Conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis of FreeO2 technology versus manual oxygen-titration technology for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) hospitalised for acute exacerbations. SETTING Tertiary acute care hospital in Quebec, Canada. PARTICIPANTS 47 patients with COPD hospitalised for acute exacerbations. INTERVENTION An automated oxygen-titration and oxy...

Introduction: Fingertip pulse oximeters are commonly used as non-invasive modes of measuring oxygen saturation (SpO2) and heart rate (HR) in critical care units. In these cases, a shorter duration of time required obtaining the measurement and time to stabilization is crucial. Objective: Our aim was to compare two new generation pulse oximeters with respect to latency in the fi rst reading and ...

AIM To identify factors that distinguish duct-dependent congenital heart disease (DDCHD) from non-DDCHD in newborn infants. METHOD A retrospective, cohort study. The Newborn Emergency Transport Service, Victoria (NETS) is a retrieval service for all inter-hospital neonatal transfers, and the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne (RCH) is a paediatric cardiac referral centre for the state of Vi...