Oxygen saturation screening in newborns

A probe is attached to the infant’s finger, toe, or the edge of the foot to measure the percentage of hemoglobin in the arterial blood that is saturated with oxygen. [...] The objective of the study was to review the performance, effects and costs of newborn screening strategies for congenital heart defects, including pulse oximetry, clinical examination and echocardiography.4 Another goal of the HTA was to explore the perspectives of parents and health professionals on the quality of life of children with congenital heart defects by using a self- administered anony [...] For the purposes of this report, a summary of the methods, results and conclusions will be limited to the performance of pulse oximetry to detect congenital heart defects. [...] The sensitivity of the screening test was calculated to be 60%, with a specificity of 99.95%, a positive predictive value of 75% and a negative predictive value of 99.98%. [...] Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Two systematic reviews were identified.1,11 The first systematic review (2005) was authored by the same UK group that performed the health technology assessment described above.1 The objective of the review was to compare the effectiveness of clinical examination with either pulse oximetry or screening echocardiography to detect treatable but life-threatening c