Pulse oximetry is used widely to titrate oxygen therapy and for triage in patients who are critically ill. However, there are concerns regarding the accuracy of pulse oximetry in patients with COVID-19 pneumonitis and in patients who have a greater degree of skin pigmentation. We aimed to determine the impact of patient ethnicity on the accuracy of peripheral pulse oximetry in patients who were critically ill with COVID-19 pneumonitis by conducting a retrospective observational study comparing paired measurements of arterial oxygen saturation measured by co-oximetry on arterial blood gas analysis (SaO₂) and the corresponding peripheral oxygenation saturation measured by pulse oximetry (S_pO₂). Bias was calculated as the mean difference between SaO₂ and S_pO₂ measurements and limits of agreement were calculated as bias ±1.96 SD. Data from 194 patients (135 White ethnic origin, 34 Asian ethnic origin, 19 Black ethnic origin and 6 other ethnic origin) were analysed consisting of 6216 paired SaO₂ and S_pO₂ measurements. Bias (limits of agreement) between SaO₂ and S_pO₂ measurements was 0.05% (−2.21–2.30). Patient ethnicity did not alter this to a clinically significant degree: 0.28% (1.79–2.35), −0.33% (−2.47–2.35) and −0.75% (−3.47–1.97) for patients of White, Asian and Black ethnic origin, respectively. In patients with COVID-19 pneumonitis, S_pO₂ measurements showed a level of agreement with SaO₂ values that was in line with previous work, and this was not affected by patient ethnicity.

中文翻译：

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患者种族对 COVID-19 肺炎患者外周脉搏血氧饱和度准确性的影响：一项单中心回顾性分析

脉搏血氧仪广泛用于调整氧疗和对危重患者进行分诊。然而，对于 COVID-19 肺炎患者和皮肤色素沉着程度较高的患者，脉搏血氧仪的准确性存在担忧。我们的目的是通过一项回顾性观察研究来确定患者种族对 COVID-19 肺炎危重患者外周脉搏血氧饱和度准确性的影响(SaO ₂ ) 和通过脉搏血氧仪测量的相应外周血氧饱和度 (S _p O ₂ )。偏差计算为 SaO 之间的平均差₂和 S _p O ₂测量值和一致性限制计算为偏差 ±1.96 SD。对来自 194 名患者（135 名白人、34 名亚洲人、19 名黑人和 6 名其他种族）的数据进行了分析，包括 6216 对 SaO ₂和 S _p O ₂测量值。_{SaO 2}和 S _p O ₂测量值之间的偏差（一致性限制）为 0.05% (-2.21–2.30)。患者种族并没有在临床上显着改变这一点：白人、亚洲和黑人种族血统的患者为 0.28% (1.79-2.35)、-0.33% (-2.47-2.35) 和 -0.75% (-3.47-1.97)，分别。在 COVID-19 肺炎患者中，S _pO ₂测量显示与SaO ₂值的一致性水平与以前的工作一致，并且不受患者种族的影响。