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Oxygen saturation/minute heart rate index: Simple lung function test for children
Ali Ozdemir1, Dilek Dogruel2, Ozlem Yilmaz3
1Pediatric Pulmonary Section, Department of Pediatrics, Mersin Women and Children's Hospital, Halkkent, Mersin, Turkey.
Insights
The oxygen saturation/minute heart rate (SpO2/MHR) index effectively predicts severe airway obstruction in children with asthma. This simple, reliable tool can assess asthma severity when spirometry is unavailable.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Pulmonology
- Respiratory Medicine
- Asthma Management
Background:
- Spirometry accurately measures airway obstruction severity in pediatric asthma.
- Alternative assessments like peak expiratory flow and pulse oximetry are also used.
- The study investigated the oxygen saturation/minute heart rate (SpO2/MHR) index for predicting severe airway obstruction in asthmatic children.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the validity and reliability of the SpO2/MHR index.
- To determine if SpO2/MHR can predict the degree of severe airway obstruction in children with asthma.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective study of 296 children (aged 7-17) with asthma.
- Compared SpO2/MHR ratio with spirometry-measured forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1).
- Calculated predictive values, sensitivity, and specificity using receiver operating characteristic analysis.
Main Results:
- A cut-off of SpO2/MHR <0.90 showed 80.34% sensitivity and 75.42% specificity for predicting low FEV1.
- This cut-off yielded a positive predictive value (PPV) of 83.14% and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 71.77%.
Conclusions:
- The SpO2/MHR ratio is a highly useful index for assessing airway obstruction in older children with asthma.
- It can serve as a valuable marker for airway obstruction severity when spirometry is not feasible.
Background:
The severity of airway obstruction can be accurately determined on spirometry in children with asthma. Other assessments may include peak expiratory flow and pulse oximetry. In the present study, we evaluated the validity and reliability of oxygen saturation/minute heart rate (SpO2 /MHR) index in the prediction of degree of severe airway obstruction in children with asthma.
Methods:
This was a retrospective study of children aged 7-17 followed for asthma at Mersin Women and Children's Hospital. The study compared SpO2 /MHR ratio with forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1 ) measured on spirometry, an important indicator of small airway obstruction. A total of 296 patients were included in the study, and classified either as having normal FEV1 (FEV1 > 80% of predicted, n = 178) or severely reduced FEV1 (FEV1 < 60% of predicted, n = 118). Positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV), sensitivity and specificity of SpO2 /MHR index in predicting low FEV1 were calculated on receiver operating characteristics analysis.
Results:
An SpO2 /MHR ratio cut-off <0.90 was associated with a PPV of 83.14%, NPV of 71.77%, sensitivity of 80.34% and specificity of 75.42% in predicting low FEV1 .
Conclusions:
SpO2 /MHR ratio appears to be a highly useful index to assess airway obstruction in older children with asthma. Thus, it can be used as a marker of airway obstruction severity when spirometry is not available.
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