Oximeter: Cost vrs Benefit

[RipVW]

Simply, Is there a benefit to paying the cost of owning an oximeter for us CPAP users?

I have had a few (starting with ebay ex hospital - el cheapo purchases). Latest is the fingertip unit called
the CMS-50E (built-in data recorder & has a minature color display screen all in or on the fingertip probe itself).

I found that gathering occasional data from POs over time (about 2 years now) has given me my own baseline
for what is good & not so good.

If I am in doubt about the effectiveness of a particular period of therapy or any changes I make to my settings
I can confidently gather a nights data & look at it knowing I have lots of past charts to compare with.

I don't use it much lately because am pretty sure my current setup is optimized well enough.

In summary, the money and time has been worth it & I would do it again.

DSM

I agree! I rely on mine to give me evidence that my therapy is really working as it should. I love my SPO 7500!

[Peaktagger]

Does anyone make a reasonable priced oximeter?

CMS-50F about $240. Had mine for about 3 weeks, no problems, works great.

[Peaktagger]

I have recently purchased one and feel it is another useful tool in the war against OSA. The more information the better in my opinion.

I also enjoy climbing mountains in the Sierras and wanted a Pulse Ox to measure my O2 at high elevations, mostly out of curiosity. This past summer my O2 sats were checked on top of a 14,000' mountain as part of a medical study at the Barcroft Lab, part of the University of California system. After hiking 8 miles and 2500' of elevation gain, my O2 was at 77% LOL.

Michael

[Arizona-Willie]

I have been using the CMS-50E for about a year now.

Use it EVERY night just like the CPAP.

It really helps to see how things are going from another angle.

And, as many have said, the goal of XPAP therapy is to keep your oxygen levels up.
You don't know if that is happening if you don't watch the oxygen level.

I suspect I should possibly be on supplemental oxygen.

My basal SP02 rarely reaches 93%.

Almost every night I have some percentage of time spent below 90% ...usually only a fraction of a percent but some nights have dropped down in the 6-9% range. Which is ungood.

And, the bad O2 nights can come on a night with a good AHI. AHI might be only 3 or so but still have a high percentage of time below 90% O2.

And, conversely, I've seen bad AHI nights but relatively good O2 percentage ... not often but it happens.

The worrisome part is having good AHI and high percentage of time below 90% on the O2 ... then I wonder if I should have supplemental O2.

Haven't been to the lung doctor for several years. Quit going because I wasn't taking the medicine he prescribed because I always felt ok sitting in front of the computer ... thought I didn't need it .... DENIAL DENIAL DENIAL.

He had told me I had 70% lung function but sitting in front of this idiot box I don't get short of breath or have any problem breathing.

Plus I didn't trust the lab he used for X-rays and MRI. My regular GP sent me there because my shoulder hurt and they x-rayed and said it was fine just arthritis. So doc gave me a cortisone shot ... didn't help. I went to Mayo and they took one look at the x-rays Mayo did and said I had a bone spur and, most likely, a torn rotator cuff and then they did an MRI which showed the torn rotator cuff. The other lab didn't see anything.

I reckon maybe possibly I oughta go to the lung docs at Mayo. Just never felt bad breathing wise really so haven't bothered.

[kebsa]

I have just bought one recently, as someone else posted in another thread, a diabetic would not think of trying to manage their condition without a blood glucose monitor and as a diabetic that struck a chord with me, it is absolutely correct! It obvioulsy is only a part of the monitoring pacckage, the data from the machines and the 'Dr's assessments are the rest but that too is similar to diabetes management.

Budget is limited so i was looking for a reasonably priced one that stored data, i found the CMS=50e for $179 US and placed an order, When it arrived i got one of my collegues who still works in a clinical setting to have it checked ( i offered to pay if needed but they were happy to look at it for me-they frequently check patients machines such as cpaps etc when they need to be used in hospital ) and i have been reassured that it is suitable for personal/home monitoring . This was reassuring as i had read another thread where some were pleased with the model and someone else had had trouble with not one but 2. I guess time will tell on how durable it is. So far it has confirmed basically what my sleep studies did, that with out cpap my sats drop frequently to the low seventies and on occasions to the high 50's. with bipap (and we know that the settings and even machine choice needs to be worked out still) the sats do not drop below 90.

maybe it is an added level of monitoring depending on what data the machine a person is using collects, but to my way of thinking even if i had had to pay more for a unit the only difference it would have made is that it would have delayed my purchase until i had recovered from the purchase of the the machine and mask etc

karen

[DreamDiver]

I have a constellation of considerations for acquiring an oximeter, scattered, but loosely related:

• I agree with kebsa on the diabetic analogy. You can survive only minutes without oxygen.
• While it is relatively available in the atmosphere, we're interested in what is actually getting to the cellular level in our bodies.
• Yes, the CPAP machine helps keep you breathing, but it does not measure blood oxygen levels. An oximeter does. If you are still having desaturation while using a CPAP, the only way to know how severe they are is with an oximeter.
• With a recording oximeter, you can bring those results to your sleep doc and ask better questions. "Hey doc, if these settings are correct, then why am I still getting desats that hover below 80?"
• If you can afford to buy one, great.
• If you would rather rent one occasionally, that's great too, but the cost of rental and the cost of owning are narrowing as inexpensive but very accurate models become available.
• You could always buy one and then sell it when you've found out what you need to know. It would probably be cheaper than renting, and you'll recoup some of your cost.
• Taking your blood pressure upon waking is another good measure for therapy effectiveness. If you're still waking up with a blood pressure that soars over normal daytime resting blood pressure, you may not be getting all the benefits of sleep therapy - something again worth talking to your doctor about.
• Anything you can learn about how your body works might help you with sleep apnea.
• Yes, humans have been living eons without oximetry. We may not actually need it to survive, but why just subsist? If it will help us to actually thrive, why not use the tools we have at hand?

[Ender519]

Not sure how good it is, but I found one here for $139 http://www.facelake.com/cms50e.html

It has a wireless option (+$40) but otherwise is just USB, and comes with the software that is needed to generate the reports..

[janp]

I just got my SPO 7500.

Plus I'm new to CPAP therapy, but ...

On recent visits to both my Sleep Doctor and my Family Doctor I gave them copies of a single night's report from Encore Pro AND the oximeter report for the same night.

The FIRST report that the both of them looked at was the oximeter report!

My feeling is that the more data I can give my health care providers ... the better they can do their job ... in taking care of me.

As other's have posted, it's also a valuable tool in checking the EP data against the saturation levels.

My personal feeling is that it was a good investment in my therapy.

Jan

[mdbarthe]

I just bought the CMS-50E last week and have used it every night since. I bought it at the price Ender519's link points to. I also dropped by the DME and borrowed his high-end oximeter that they normally use in hospital lab sleep studies. I wore both on that particular evening and when I downloaded the data from my CMS-50E the next morning, I took it along to the DME to see how the report from the high-end machine compared. They were identical and had the same information.

Based on that, I would say the CMS-50E at $139 was a good bargain.

[Snorebert]

I wonder, would a device such as this provide evidence of potential sleep apnea in a person that will not accept that s/he might have it? I will bet that we all know someone who we suspect might be a sleep apnea sufferer. Could getting them to wear an oximeter for a night give them evidence that something should be done?

-Clark

[deerhound]

Clark, my primary care doctor took one look at my oximeter report and had an oxygen concentrator sent to my house a soon as he saw it. I slept on oxygen until my sleep test which confirmed severe apnea. I sure do like my bipap compared to the oxygen. Funny how nose pillows are more comfortable than the small O2 cannula.

[Snorebert]

Wow!! Sounds like you dodged the bullet on that one!

[mindy]

I wonder, would a device such as this provide evidence of potential sleep apnea in a person that will not accept that s/he might have it? I will bet that we all know someone who we suspect might be a sleep apnea sufferer. Could getting them to wear an oximeter for a night give them evidence that something should be done?

-Clark

Clark,

Although I don't think O2 desaturations are caused only by sleep apnea, it could, imho, be used to at least determine if there is a problem or not. I've read that O2 desaturations below about 89% are not good - especially when they happen multiple times per night. I find my O2 numbers to be a much bigger incentive to stick with cpap therapy than the nightly reports. The o2 numbers are clear evidence of damage being done to my body.

Mindy

[elader]

I wonder, would a device such as this provide evidence of potential sleep apnea in a person that will not accept that s/he might have it? I will bet that we all know someone who we suspect might be a sleep apnea sufferer. Could getting them to wear an oximeter for a night give them evidence that something should be done?

-Clark

You guys will love this - first is a screen shot of my pulse and oximeter chart from part of last night on cpap - second is after i took off the cpap and went back to sleep.
If you were hesitant to try to treat your apnea with cpap, would this convince you? Scared the crap out of me !!!!

THIS IS YOU ON CPAP

THIS IS YOU OFF CPAP

[robertmarilyn]

You guys will love this - first is a screen shot of my pulse and oximeter chart from part of last night on cpap - second is after i took off the cpap and went back to sleep.
If you were hesitant to try to treat your apnea with cpap, would this convince you? Scared the crap out of me !!!!

Wow, I think it's worth the cost of the "cute" oximeter just to see that one time! That's an excellent reason to be sure you get to use your machine on your overseas flights.

mar