Covid-19 early detection

“ There is a way we could identify more patients who have Covid pneumonia sooner and treat them more effectively — and it would not require waiting for a coronavirus test at a hospital or doctor’s office. It requires detecting silent hypoxia early through a common medical device that can be purchased without a prescription at most pharmacies: a pulse oximeter.”

nytimes.com/2020/04/20/opin...

[faridaro]

Good information - we have this inexpensive great technology at our fingertips, literally!

[rescuema]

I have two oximeters and I found them handy over the years. I just checked mine 99/65 (if I'd been infected, I'm good for right now), and it's good to know your baseline.

"We are just beginning to recognize that Covid pneumonia initially causes a form of oxygen deprivation we call “silent hypoxia” — “silent” because of its insidious, hard-to-detect nature..."To my amazement, most patients I saw said they had been sick for a week or so with fever, cough, upset stomach and fatigue, but they only became short of breath the day they came to the hospital. Their pneumonia had clearly been going on for days, but by the time they felt they had to go to the hospital, they were often already in critical condition.

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Though I found the comments at the end of the article especially notable -

"I'm an emergency room physician, a pulmonologist intensivist, and I agree with your observation but not with your conclusion. This is a form of atypical pneumonia. None of the pneumonia symptoms or signs are 100% sensitive, so the absence of "typical" symptoms is not necessarily that unusual. And then, once hypoxia is detected early with pulse oximeters, we don't have treatment for COVID-19 pneumonia, whether we're diagnosing it early or late. So what's the point of detecting early signs of pneumonia in stable patients and bringing them to an already overwhelmed system if we can't offer them anything other than supportive care. Once we have better understanding of therapeutics and what's a good treatment in the early phases, perhaps this will be warranted. Where we stand today, I worry, we're only adding to the mass hysteria and getting people to purchase pulse-ox they don't know how to use, to then outpour into hospitals already strapped for resources on all fronts."

"I totally agree as a nurse taking care of Covid patients. Our floors have been converted to Covid floors, and we have expanded our ICU's. We need to remember that most people can and will recover at home. While I am thankful for this article, it seems to be creating a mass hysteria for the procurement of pulse oximeters. At this point, the public needs to consult their PCP's before purchasing multiple pulse oximeters on Amazon or other websites that might be taking advantage of their fear-mongering."

"I am physician who has taken care of COVID-19 patients. I wholeheartedly agree with the premise presented in this article. Early oxygen therapy could make a difference for our patients. Unfortunately, Medicare and private insurers do not pay for oxygen for “acute” problems like pneumonia. We need payers to cover this life saving treatment."

"I do have issue with the following statement. "pneumonia had clearly been going on for days, but by the time they felt they had to go to the hospital, they were often already in critical condition. " It should say by the time the Hospital agreed to admit them! Hospitals and clinics have been turning these people away telling them to take Tylenol every 4 hours and come back if they can't breath!"

[Hidden in reply to rescuema]

Still, it is helpful to guide decisions.

[rescuema in reply to Hidden]

Yes it is. I say supplement Quercetin and Zinc proactively or increase the sups at the first sign of any symptom, and have a nebulizer ready. See more below.

healthunlocked.com/parkinso...

[Sapeye2020 in reply to rescuema]

Here is a new App coming out of Israel and cooperating on a trial in Canada. I think this will be part of the patients toolbox for Health in the future,

montrealgazette.com/news/lo...

[rescuema in reply to Sapeye2020]

"Fitness trackers like Fitbit rely on light pulses against the skin to monitor for things like one’s heart rate using PPG or photoplethysmography. The Israeli company takes this a step further with remote PPG (rPPG), with the app using a smartphone’s camera to capture the light on a person’s cheeks below the eyes."

I'm not so hopeful of the potential accuracy of such technology yet, but it sounds like an explorable option as we move forward into the future.

[Sapeye2020 in reply to rescuema]

I was thinking of using it after the Emerg visit and sent home-- case-- where both you and the doctor would be able to have any trends in your key metrics and if you were headed to the basement so to speak you could head back to the hospital. Maybe not as precise as can be but an automated monitoring.

I know how sensitive oximeters can be from personal experience. Just hold your breath and sit up while in pain ( broken Scapula) and the Dr. will run for an Ultra sound machine pronto because the O2 saturation went south of 94% from 98% within seconds.