Pulse Oxygen Saturation Values in a Healthy School-Aged Population

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Pulmonology
• Clinical Diagnostics

Background:

• Establishing normal physiological parameters is crucial for accurate medical diagnosis.
• Pulse oximetry is a common non-invasive tool for assessing oxygen saturation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To define the typical range of blood oxygen saturation levels in healthy school-aged children.
• To provide updated reference values for pulse oximetry in pediatric populations.

Main Methods:

• The study included 246 healthy students in grades K-8 from Los Angeles schools.
• Exclusion criteria focused on conditions affecting respiratory or cardiac function.
• Pulse oximetry was used to measure blood oxygen saturation levels.

Main Results:

• The normal pulse oximetry range for healthy children was determined to be 97% to 100%.
• The mean oxygen saturation was 98.7%, with a median of 99%.
• Specific distributions showed 16% at 97%, 18.3% at 98%, 74.8% at 99%, and 0.4% at 100%.

Conclusions:

• Conventional thresholds for normal oxygen saturation (≥95%) may be too low for pediatric populations.
• Readings of 95% or 96% in children warrant further clinical investigation for potential disease.
• These findings suggest an updated normal range of 97%-100% for pediatric oxygen saturation.