Observational studyCritical care explorations2025
Race and the Inaccuracy of Pulse Oximetry With Hypoxemia in a Pediatric Cardiac ICU.
Observational study in Critical care explorations, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Pulse Oximetry, Skin Pigmentation, and Occult Hypoxemia in Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care.Pediatric cardiology · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo ascertain the potential effects of hypoxemia and race on pulse oximetry in a population of patients, including those for whom hypoxemia is a normal state secondary to intracardiac mixing in an ICU setting.
designRetrospective, observational, cohort study.
settingA single center's pediatric cardiac ICU (CICU). PATIENTS: Eight hundred forty-one patients undergoing bypass operations during a 52-month period (June 2019-October 2023). Predominantly, patients with congenital heart disease. The median age was 7.1 months with 58% younger than 1 year old and 88% younger than 10 years old.
interventionsArterial blood saturations, as measured by a hemoximeter, were recorded for all patients after bypass operations. These were time-matched, with high-fidelity, to pulse oximeter values. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN
resultsThe mean oximetric difference, or "pulse oximetry overestimation," was defined as arterial oxygen saturation minus that predicted by pulse oximetry, was greater for Black than for White patients (-3.18% vs. -2.19%, p = 0.006). Regression shows a significant effect of Sao2 on oximetric difference (p < 0.001) and mildly significant trend for the categorical race (p = 0.03) as well as their composite interaction term (p = 0.047). Oximetric difference was exaggerated with increasing hypoxemia. At normal oxygen saturations, the oximetric difference was greater for Black when compared with White patients (p = 0.002 for patients with Sao2 > 94%). This effect if race is not statistically significant at other Sao2 ranges that are clinically important in patients with intracardiac mixing.
conclusionsThis study redemonstrates effect of increasing hypoxemia on oximetric difference. Race may have an independent effect on oximetric difference. This adds to the body of literature that has previously suggested that pulse oximetry, relied upon as a vital sign, may introduce explicit race-related bias into the bedside interpretation of a patient's clinical state.
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