Assessing the Concordance of Arterial Oxygen Saturation and Pulse Oximetry in Patients with and Without COVID-19 Hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit

Background: As the blood oxygen level in patients with COVID-19, who show no symptoms despite the highly insufficient level of oxygen in the blood, the physician should thus be constantly aware of the blood oxygen saturation level and check it. Objectives: This study was conducted with the aim of assessing the concordance of arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2) and pulse oximetry (SpO2) in patients with and without COVID-19 hospitalized in the intensive care unit (ICU). Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study, all patients with and without COVID-19 hospitalized in the ICU in Imam Khomeini and Golestan hospitals in Kermanshah city during 6 months of the year 2020 were studied. Patients' oxygenation index was calculated in all patients (with and without COVID-19) using two variables, i.e., SpO2 gained from pulse oximetry and SaO2 derived from arterial blood gas analysis. Results: A total of 60 patients with COVID-19 and 57 patients without COVID-19 hospitalized in the ICU were studied. There was a significant positive correlation between the means of SpO2 and SaO2 in both groups of patients (P < 0.05, r (with COVID-19) = 0.727, r (without COVID-19) = 0.459). Conclusions: There is a good agreement between oxygen saturations by two measurement methods, i.e., SpO2 and SaO2 in both groups of patients with and without COVID-19. However, the pulse oximetry is not a proper method to measure oxygen saturation level in the blood of patients with COVID-19 and this method can be an acceptable method in stable conditions of the body.