Simulating the Effects of Melanin and Air Gap Depth on the Accuracy of Reflectance Pulse Oximeters

Miodrag Bolic

2023

Abstract

The work aims to understand the effects of skin color and air gap depth on the accuracy of oxygen saturation estimation. In this paper, this is done by simulating light propagation through the tissue. It is very important to understand light propagation through the tissue when designing a reflectance pulse oximeter to know what tissue layers are illuminated by the LEDs, how to position the emitter and the detector depending on the measurement site, and what kind of signal is expected at the photodetector. This knowledge could also contribute to developing robust pulse oximeters whose accuracy does not depend on a subject’s skin color. Our simulation results confirm a larger variation of SpO2 for lower saturation levels for dark-skinned subjects if the SpO2 calibration curve is mainly obtained based on measurements from light-skinned subjects. Also, if the device is calibrated with a small air gap, increasing the air gap will result in overestimated SpO2.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Bolic M. (2023). Simulating the Effects of Melanin and Air Gap Depth on the Accuracy of Reflectance Pulse Oximeters. In Proceedings of the 16th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies (BIOSTEC 2023) - Volume 1: BIODEVICES; ISBN 978-989-758-631-6, SciTePress, pages 64-71. DOI: 10.5220/0011749300003414

in Bibtex Style

@conference{biodevices23,
author={Miodrag Bolic},
title={Simulating the Effects of Melanin and Air Gap Depth on the Accuracy of Reflectance Pulse Oximeters},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 16th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies (BIOSTEC 2023) - Volume 1: BIODEVICES},
year={2023},
pages={64-71},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0011749300003414},
isbn={978-989-758-631-6},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 16th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies (BIOSTEC 2023) - Volume 1: BIODEVICES
TI - Simulating the Effects of Melanin and Air Gap Depth on the Accuracy of Reflectance Pulse Oximeters
SN - 978-989-758-631-6
AU - Bolic M.
PY - 2023
SP - 64
EP - 71
DO - 10.5220/0011749300003414
PB - SciTePress