Descriptive characteristics of continuous oximetry measurement in moderate to severe COVID-19 patients

Non-invasive oxygen saturation (SpO2) is a central vital sign that supports the management of COVID-19 patients. However, reports on SpO2 characteristics are scarce and none has analysed high resolution continuous SpO2 in COVID-19. We provide the first analysis of high resolution SpO2 across the spectrum of COVID-19 disease severity and respiratory support. A total of 367 COVID-19 patients’ recordings, comprising 27K hours of continuous SpO2 data, could be retrieved from patients hospitalized at the Rambam Health Care Campus. Using oximetry digital biomarkers (OBM), we quantified SpO2 characteristics and showed that the percentage of time under 93% oxygen saturation threshold is the best single OBM discriminating between critical and non-critical patients. OBMs traditionally used in the field of sleep medicine research, were informative for assessing the patient’s response to respiratory support. In addition, periodicity and hypoxic burden biomarkers were affected up to several hours before the initiation of the mechanical ventilation. Characteristics from high resolution SpO2 signal may enable to anticipate clinically relevant events, monitoring of treatment response and may be indicative of future deterioration.x