A multicentre prospective observational study comparing arterial blood gas values to those obtained by pulse oximeters used in adult patients attending Australian and New Zealand hospitals

Pulse oximetry is widely used in the clinical setting. The purpose of this validation study was to investigate the level of agreement between oxygen saturations measured by pulse oximeter (SpO ) and arterial blood gas (SaO ) in a range of oximeters in clinical use in Australia and New Zealand. Paired SpO and SaO measurements were collected from 400 patients in one Australian and two New Zealand hospitals. The ages of the patients ranged from 18 to 95 years. Bias and limits of agreement were estimated. Sensitivity and specificity for detecting hypoxaemia, defined as SaO