What is a normal pulse oximeter reading

My DME loaned me a pulse oximeter to see how I am doing with my new machine. And by the way I am not doing well, have not slept a full night with my mask. I was diagnosed with mod-severe OSA in August, only hypopneas. When I check my pulse ox level during the day it sometimes reads only 95%. Is there a possibilty I have lung/breathing issues that cause my OSA. What is a normal reading and what levels are considered bad or dangerous.
THANKS!!!

I think normal is generally between 95% and 98% ... you may have other issues causing you to feel badly.

I had O2 saturation levels down to 60% during my sleep study ... and I know I have had lower cuz I have awaken feeling much worse than I did the morning after the sleep study.

- roberto

Any reading below 89% is considered below normal. If you spend a good bit of the night below that level, you may need supplemental oxygen. I'm not aware of lung problems CAUSING sleep apnea, but it is not uncommon for OSA sufferers to also have other health issues. For example, I have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease which is the primary cause of my low oxygen levels. It is amazing how much better I felt after getting on supplemental oxygen, which happened about 6 months before starting APAP therapy for the apnea.

This is a good question.

I too had been wondering what was 'normal'.

Recently I did a series of experiments in cooperation with SWS & FrequenSeeker to try different modes of cpap (bilevel & cpap) as well as different pressures (10-16).

The documented results show clearly that my best results seem to be with straight CPAP at 12-13 CMS (my titration CMS was 15).

Also in the later tests I did PO readings every night & these can be see in the lower menu items.

http://www.internetage.com/cpapdata/

My wife will typically score 1 to 2 points of SpO2 higher than I do. By this I mean, that on this machine (An Ohmeda 3740) and with the probe I have, I will register 95-96 my wife will register 96-97. I can get up to 97 my wife up to 99. I also have a Nellcor N-200 and the results come out pretty much the same even though it is a different machine & has a different finger probe.

The issues with these devices is that without an opportunity to calibrate or compare, one can't be 100% certain that the reading is truly accurate. I am satisfied that mine are as close as I am going to get to accuracy & now that I have baseline measurements I will be able to compare future results with these ones from the tests.

Hope this data reassures you that 95-96 is not unusual.

Cheers

DSM

90% and above is generally considered "OK".
The other parameter they toss around is maintaining no more than a 4% drop from your "baseline".

95% is generally considered darn good for nighttime. If that and above is your reading, I would start considering other problems for sleep disturbance.

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