How to interpret oximeter reading?

[CubsFan2017]

Hello!

I am new here and I do NOT own a CPAP. My wife and I both strongly believe that I have some sort of sleep apnea. I have had a sleep study done 2 years ago but they told me it wasn't bad enough where insurance would cover anything. I worked 2nd shift hours during that time and having to go to bed at 9pm for the study when I normally go to bed at 3-4am was a very real struggle and I did NOT get very good sleep that night. I'm having doubts about the results for it.

I recently bought a oximeter and i'm having trouble interpreting the results of it. Would anybody here be able to help me out with that?

I wore it for 3.5 hours last night, here are the results: http://imgur.com/a/y6sTx


Summary:
According to SPO2 (defines an event as 3% drop from baseline for at least 10 seconds)
Baseline SPO2: 94.9%
69 EVENTS in 3.5 hours.


If going by a 4% drop:
35 EVENTS in 3.5 hours.



Is there anything in particular I should be looking for in this? And What should a normal night look like?

[TASmart]

I bought a CMS 50F and there is a lot of variations in the readings. Key think is you are not dropping below 90% so I think there is no problem.

[Goofproof]

Not sure what you want to do, but if you are trying to see if you have Sleep Apnea, you need to take readings all night while you are sleeping. That requires a Pulse Ox that records data, and the software to read it. Jim

[southerndoc]

Not all apneic events generate hypoxemia. Those that interrupt your sleep cycle still have negative effects on your health.

I would repeat the sleep study.

[palerider]

Is there anything in particular I should be looking for in this? And What should a normal night look like?

people without SDB of some sort tend to have more stable o2 and pulse rate lines than you do.

[beet]

I bought a CMS 50i and was surprised that it showed no drop in O2 during CA events.

I wonder whether fingertip sensors are inherently not sensitive enough. Because your heart is a lot farther from your fingertip than your brain, it seems plausible that an apnea event significant enough to affect O2 in the brain might not measurably affect O2 in the finger tip.

[palerider]

I bought a CMS 50i and was surprised that it showed no drop in O2 during CA events.

I wonder whether fingertip sensors are inherently not sensitive enough. Because your heart is a lot farther from your fingertip than your brain, it seems plausible that an apnea event significant enough to affect O2 in the brain might not measurably affect O2 in the finger tip.

it takes longer for o2 desaturations to show up than most people think. the urge to breath isn't controlled by the o2 in the blood, it's controlled by the co2 in the blood. and typically you're driven to breath to get rid of the co2 that's building up before the o2 is significantly depleted.

[TASmart]

just a guess on my pat from my days of doing pharmacokinetics dO/DT is small and the o2 storage >> than dO/dt and the sensitivity of the measuring device is greater than the accuracy.

[miller6506]

It's maybe skiff.