Does ambient light affect the accuracy of pulse oximetry?
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 23, 2026

A Model to Simulate Clinically Relevant Hypoxia in Humans
Published on: December 22, 2016
Robert R Fluck1, Christine Schroeder, Greg Frani
1Department of Cardiorespiratory Sciences, State University of New York, Upstate Medical University, 750 East Adams Street, Syracuse NY 13210, USA. fluckr@mail.upstate.edu
Objective:
Determine whether ambient light affects the accuracy of pulse oximetry readings.
Design:
Prospective, repeated-measures study.
Setting:
A photographic darkroom.
Subjects:
Forty-five faculty and students at a university, none of whom had pale skin, dark skin, or evidence of cardiopulmonary disease. Any nail polish was removed.
Methods:
Five light sources were individually tested: incandescent, quartz-halogen, infrared, fluorescent, and bilirubin light. A pulse oximetry probe was placed on the subject's finger, and the finger and probe were placed sideways under each light source, on a predetermined mark.
Results:
The greatest difference in pulse oximetry reading between any of the light sources was 0.5%. Repeated-measures analysis of variance yielded a p value of 0.204.
Conclusions:
Ambient light has no statistically significant effect on pulse oximetry readings. Even had the differences been statistically significant, the magnitude of the differences was small and thus clinically unimportant.
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