[ad_1]
Have you ever thought about having a portable non-invasive device at home that identifies the right time to go to a hospital during the new coronavirus pandemic (SARS-CoV-2)? You are thinking of protecting yourself from the COVID-19 that many Brazilians are buying their first oximeter, but the reality is not exactly like this.
Similar to a clip placed on one of the fingers, the oximeter measures the level of oxygen in the user’s blood and that is precisely why it has attracted so much attention. After all, a major symptom of the most severe cases of COVID-19 is shortness of breath, which generates less oxygen in the blood. Currently, an oximeter costs from R $ 150 in online stores.
Sales and more sales
According to Google Trends data, since April 20, searches for the term “oximeter” in the search engine are increasing, with some spikes in demand, such as what happened on the 27th of the same month. This increased demand is also noted by providers of health monitoring equipment. According to BBC News, vendors Accumed-Glicomed and Dellamed say growth in sales of the device grew more than 100% in the same period last year.
According to a electronic commerce those who did not want to identify themselves, sales were five to six oximeters per day, before the race caused by COVID-19. Only on April 23, the virtual store sold almost 80 units and, on 26, the product was no longer in stock. With the increase in demand, the increase in the dollar and the limit of China’s import capacity (where the device comes from), the store also reports that the cost of the final product has increased.
“I have seen the race for the device in the last few weeks,” says doctor and pulmonologist José Eduardo Afonso of the Israelita Albert Einstein Hospital. “A large number of patients who do not have chronic problems now have an oximeter at home that measures oxygen saturation, even without knowing if they have COVID-19,” explains Afonso.
How does it work?
On its screen, an oximeter shows the percentage of oxygen in the patient’s blood, which, in theory, can vary from 0% to 100%. However, the normal saturation level of human oxygenation, according to doctors, is between 95% and 100%. Furthermore, less than 93% can already be considered a warning sign. However, it is worth noting that patients with certain chronic diseases can generally have a saturation level below normal.
To achieve the percentage, this meter works with an infrared light on the patient’s finger, which penetrates the tissues and analyzes hemoglobins, that is, the proteins responsible for the transport of oxygen in the blood. However, the use of dark enamel can interfere with this reading, as well as with a very cold hand or taking the measurement when you wake up. It is also necessary to pay attention to the possible variability and inaccuracy of the data according to the quality of the devices.
Oximeter x COVID-19
The use of oximeters as a method of monitoring COVID-19 began because some patients had no respiratory problems, despite having coronavirus pneumonia and subnormal blood oxygenation. But without shortness of breath, they arrived at the hospital too late, according to the American doctor Richard Levitan, in an article published in The New York Times.
Also according to Levitan, the use of oximeters by patients with coronavirus can solve this problem, preventing people from only arriving at the hospital in critical condition, when they need to be intubated in an emergency. Therefore, he argues that people with compatible symptoms or diagnosed with COVID-19 use the device for two weeks, during which the disease must develop, always with medical monitoring.
However, this orientation is controversial in medicine. For example, the Brazilian Society of Pulmonology and Tisiology published a note last Tuesday (28), in which it did not recommend “the unrestricted use of a household oximeter to monitor oxygen saturation during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“As there are no scientific studies on this monitoring in patients with a suspected or confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19, we suggest that the decision on whether or not to use home oximetry monitoring should be left to the attending physician. There is no indication of the use of the home oximeter in individuals without chronic lung diseases, or as a method of early diagnosis of COVID-19 “, completes the statement.
One of the symptoms
The oximeter does not diagnose anyone for COVID-19. In addition, the decrease in oxygenation, when it occurs, covers the minority of cases, and only after the sixth or seventh day. In the same period, other symptoms should be noted, such as fever and body pain. That is, the amount of oxygen in the blood cannot be the only criterion adopted for the evaluation of cases.
Even in the hospital, oximetry is only one of the parameters to decide whether or not to admit a patient. However, health experts agree that the oximeter can be useful in some situations, such as monitoring people with other chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart or respiratory problems.
“Perhaps it would be more valuable for us to think about monitoring patients in risk groups, who are more likely to progress to more serious diseases, such as the elderly or those who already have lung disease,” defends pulmonologist André Nathan, from Sírio Hospital Lebanese.
When a patient in these conditions, with COVID-19, seeks help in a hospital and the doctor considers that it is not the case of hospitalization, having an oximeter at home can be very useful, since, from a distance, the infected person It will have a good parameter to know when to seek new hospital care, always with medical monitoring.
Source: BBC and G1
[ad_2]
