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Choosing an Oximeter
#1
Choosing an Oximeter
First off this is my first post and I'd like to introduce myself. I'm 5' 9" at about 163#. 56 yrs old. 25 years ago I had the full blown throat bore job (forgot the procedure name). After several attempts about 10 years ago I finally convince a specialist to order a sleep study. Again I can't remember the data but I had really low oximeter readings and a bunch of apnea events. I have a resmed S-9 with a humidifier and a nose piece. My AHI numbers are around 2 to 6 (sometimes higher). Recently I went in for a deviated septum procedure. While talking to the surgeon he stated because of my physiology it may be helpful to bring my lower jaw more forward while I'm sleeping. I ordered a snorerx MAD. I've only been using it for a very short time along with my cpap but I've noticed a drop (consistent low 2's) in my AHI and a more restful feeling in the morning. The MAD is causing alot of mouth leaks and I'm still in the adaptation stage as far as getting use to it. My REAL question here is I'd like to start monitoring oxygen readings but there are a jillion oximeters to pick from. Is there any that stand above the rest and can anyone recommend one for personal monitoring? I'd like it to interface to sleepyhead which is a program I am just starting to use.
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#2
RE: Choosing an Oximeter
You can download a free copy of #Sleepyhead (appears you are already using), and it will work with the Supports Contec CMS50D+/E/F/I/H Oximeters and your S9. I would look at those options in order to use the software to correlate events.

Good luck. Looks like all the surgeons want a piece of you.
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#3
RE: Choosing an Oximeter
There are a number of product reviews here.

Many of the CMS50 ___ will work and integrate with SleepyHead
                                                                                                                          
Note: I'm an epidemiologist, not a medical provider. 
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#4
RE: Choosing an Oximeter
(12-29-2016, 10:44 AM)6JS6 Wrote: My REAL question here is I'd like to start monitoring oxygen readings but there are a jillion oximeters to pick from. Is there any that stand above the rest and can anyone recommend one for personal monitoring? I'd like it to interface to sleepyhead which is a program I am just starting to use.

Why not ask a real expert who has my enthusiastic endorsement for the advice he provided to me when I was faced with exactly the same dilemma. Call Kevin Cooper at Vendor#19 for a honest answer to your question. It is well worth your time.

Best of luck with your quest.
"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." -- Marcus Aurelius
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#5
RE: Choosing an Oximeter
Hi 6JS6,

Here's what I use when I want to take a look at oxygen levels:

CMS 50D+ Blue Finger Pulse Oximeter with USB and Sofware

I bought one last August from azmawazonz for $35 with free Prime delivery. Search on the above product title (the typo is actually in the product title).

The CMS 50D+ comes with its own software (called SP02 Assistant) but the data is also directly importable from the device into Sleepyhead. I installed the SP02 software on my Windows PC before I knew about using Sleepyhead to read the device directly. It's no big deal to install, but it takes extra steps to upload, save the file, and import the file into Sleepyhead. So now I just use Sleepyhead to read the device directly.

The user interface on the CMS 50D+ device is a little quirky and non-intuitive but with a little practice you will get the hang of it. Play with it so you know how the data capture function works and upload some data from a short test capture before you rely on it for an overnight session or you may be disappointed that first morning you are looking for real data.

One tricky part is synchronizing the data. The pulse oximeter device does not have a real time clock, so there is no time stamp in the data it captures. All you need to do is press the start buttons on both the CPAP machine and the oximeter data capture at the same time. Later when importing data into Sleepyhead, select the option to align the oximeter import data with the start of CPAP session. This approach is easy to do and works great to synchronize the data in Sleepyhead.

Also note that the oximeter device only stores one session of data however long or short the session. When you start the capture function it overwrites old data. Once you start it at night you want to leave it running and don't stop it until morning when you turn off the CPAP machine. If the device falls off your finger, just put it back on and it will keep the data logging in time synch with the CPAP machine just with a gap in the appropriate place while it was off the finger. If you try to stop and restart it, then you lose the data up to that point and also the synchronization with the CPAP data session.

You will want to buy some spare batteries. This device gets about three full nights on a battery and then it will die sometime during the fourth night. The data will be there up until the battery died, but point is this device eats batteries.

There are a few others who use pulse oximeters, so holler back once you get yours and anytime you get stuck. Key is to buy a device that does capture data, includes an interface such as USB so you can upload to your computer, and is compatible with Sleepyhead. The one I mentioned is relatively cheap, works well, and is known to be compatible.

There are newer and fancier ones out there, but realize that the Sleepyhead oximetry import function has not been updated in a while, so newer is not necessarily better for compatibility with Sleepyhead. Any device that someone here says works for them personally is safe for you to consider buying.

hope this is helpful,

Saldus Miegas

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#6
RE: Choosing an Oximeter
Hi 6JS6,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
Good luck to you as you continue your CPAp therapy.
trish6hundred
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#7
RE: Choosing an Oximeter
I concur--excepting differences between CMS50D and CMS50I--adding mainly that my experience of one year with a wrist-worn device and its "rubber" finger trap, a CMS50I, has been very good. It records and stores up to about 55-60 hours (7 nights, approx., each one in an individual file you can see and choose from in Sleepyhead and (only in) the CMS software). Main downside: it cost about $120 on e-bay and I had some concern about having to get it from China, not being available in USA (I was told) because it lacked FDA approval.

My redundant procedure is a bit OCD and I have thought about "backing off" and merely doing steps "3" and "4". The CMS never has fully discharged; it charges while the USB is plugged in while I (1) upload (backup) the recent sleep files to disk from the Autoset A10 chip, (2) upload from the CMS to the SpO2 software and review the graphs and numerical analysis there, (3) open SleepyHead and see Autoset's new results (before bringing in CMS data which inconveniently crowds some graphs of interest off/down the screen), (4) bring CMS data into Sleepyhead and review the correlated/synched Autoset and CMS graphs (using that synching technique of clicking to indicate that both the Autoset (puff into the mask) and CMS (press "record") are started at same time...because the CMS does have a clock but the two time pieces diverge quickly...so synching clocks is a waste of time), (5) opening ResScan (the vsn. before the newly announced one) to review and see the durations of OSA's, (6) Saving (in ResScan, a must) before a summary export table (I use Excel, CSV) can be output showing summaries for each of the past 90 days.

Every night's sleep gets a named subdirectory to hold Autoset generated and Excel files. Tonight's subdirectory: "161230" = YYMMDD.

I wish the CMS allowed (or I haven't discovered ways) of outputting nightly files to a backup and of feeding directly from finger-trap sensor light to laptop software (curiosity motivated). The software appears to be designed for that but USB connections are a problem. The CMS has a non standard mini-B look alike female connection. The deprecated adapter I ordered that was "close" and supposed to work but did not fit. Also, I don't see any way to delete any of my unnecessary files the CMS keeps stored.

I only use ResScan because of wanting to see the time durations of the OSA markers. It's a pain to hover by so many of them through a bad night of sleep using Sleepyhead to find out how long they were. ResScan will show them individually with the tall, colored bars showing the duration. (Sleep and breathing are much better now after using these tools and my sleep adaptations; my once frequent longer OSA's (of from 50-90 seconds with a record = 150) and my frequent high densities of such long OSAs have rarely appeared and have been less than 60 seconds for months now.)

I hope this helps. Further, I appreciate suggestions.
I have no particular qualifications or expertise with respect to the apnea/cpap/sleep related content of my posts beyond my own user experiences and what I've learned from others on this site. Each of us bears the burden of evaluating the validity and applicability of what we read here before acting on it.  

Of my 3 once-needed, helpful, and adjunctive devices I have listed, only the accelerometer remains operative (but now idle). My second CMS50I died, too, of old age and the so-so Dreem 2 needs head-positioning band repair--if, indeed, Dreem even supports use of it now.



 
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#8
RE: Choosing an Oximeter
(12-30-2016, 04:19 AM)2SleepBetta Wrote: Main downside: it cost about $120 on e-bay and I had some concern about having to get it from China, not being available in USA (I was told) because it lacked FDA approval.

The FDA certification is what keeps the vendor honest and producing a quality product that yields results that are reproducible and within a defined error tolerance. Some overseas manufacturers cut costs for non-FDA certified products. And, I have seen some products that are obvious knock-offs of the real product.

I would much rather deal with a reliable domestic vendor knowing that repairs/replacements are easier and they are less likely to be offering knock-offs of well-known products.

Again, I encourage you to call Kevin Cooper - Vendor #19 before making a decision.

I have no problem with single day data since I download my machine data daily and look at the pulse-ox data about once a week. Excessive movement produces data dropouts or noisy unreliable signals. I am upset the ResMed overprices their monitor adapter -- but like everything ResMed, its mostly premium pricing with little or no special deals.
"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." -- Marcus Aurelius
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#9
RE: Choosing an Oximeter
Hi 2SleepBetta,

Thanks for the excellent and informative writeup on the CMS50I. Even though I have the CMS50D+, it's good to know what viable alternatives are out there.

I spot check Sp02 occasionally but if I ever had a need to continuously monitor every night I might consider an alternative such as this one that wouldn't devour batteries. So this info was definitely of interest to me.

(12-30-2016, 04:19 AM)2SleepBetta Wrote: I only use ResScan because of wanting to see the time durations of the OSA markers. It's a pain to hover by so many of them through a bad night of sleep using Sleepyhead to find out how long they were.

Are you aware of the Events tab for reviewing details of all events in Sleepyhead?

When viewing the data in Daily mode, below the calendar display on the left side of the window there are four tabs: Details, Events, Notes, and Bookmarks.

The Events tab lists the events grouped by each category that was observed in the data. Click on the little triangle at the left of an event category title, and it expands to display a list of events. Each numbered event includes the clock time when it occurred and its duration in parens. Scan the list and you have all the durations. Click on an event of interest and it takes you to the spot on the graphical display where that event occurred. Event types include Pulse Change and Sp02 Drop events as well as the usual apnea events.

It's not the same bar chart type of display as ResScan produces, but if the numbers are what you are after, this is a great report with drill down capability that dynamically highlights the chart when you click on any event.

(12-30-2016, 04:19 AM)2SleepBetta Wrote: open SleepyHead and see Autoset's new results (before bringing in CMS data which inconveniently crowds some graphs of interest off/down the screen)

Did you know that you can configure the order of graphical displays in Sleepyhead?

This way the high interest graphs won't get pushed below the fold when you add the Oximeter data.

To rearrange, move the cursor over a graph title on the left side and the cursor turns into a hand. Click and drag the title to reorder the graphs. You will only need to do this one time after you have imported the oximeter data to arrange the Pulse Rate and Sp02 graphs in relation to the other ones you don't want to fall off the screen. Sleepyhead will remember how you arranged them.

Saldus Miegas
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#10
RE: Choosing an Oximeter
Hi,

I've been using a CONTEC CMS50F wrist oximeter to monitor SPO2 levels (from Amazon UK), which has just led in part to a diagnosis of OSA (waiting to go onto CPAP). I've been experimenting with importing data into SleepyHead. A few observations (different Contec models seem to work differently).

1) The CMS50F will only store a single session, if you start another session any earlier session gets overwritten.

2) You can download directly from the Oximeter over USB into SleepyHead, however, I found that times are not synched correctly, it appears to be able to read the correct starting time, however, the imported values seemed to be spread, ending at the time of import not the time I stopped recording on the Oximeter. Seems more reliable to load from files already downloaded to computer using the 'SPO2 Assistant' software that comes with the Oximeter.

3) 'SPO2 Assistant' stores the files it downloads in a 'hidden/special' folder (at least in Windows 10):

C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\SpO2 Assistant V2.7.0 

SleepyHead will not load files directly from this location. I've found I have to copy the .spo2 file(s) to a normal folder in order to import them.

4) I'd previously purchased the Contec CMS50D oximeter that fits directly on a finger, I'd not recommend this for overnight recording, at least for me I couldn't keep it on my finger overnight, while the soft finger probe on the CMS50F stays on the finger. Also the CMS50D uses a non standard mini USB cable while the CMS50F works with a standard mini USB cable.

Regards HZone
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