What molecule does the pulse oximeter target to calculate SPO2?

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Multiple Choice

What molecule does the pulse oximeter target to calculate SPO2?

Explanation:
The main idea is that SpO2 reflects how much of the body's hemoglobin is carrying oxygen, not how much oxygen is simply dissolved in plasma. A pulse oximeter uses light at two wavelengths to distinguish oxyhemoglobin (oxygen-bound) from deoxyhemoglobin (without oxygen) in arterial blood and reports the percentage of hemoglobin molecules that are oxygenated. Oxygen dissolved in plasma is a very small part of total oxygen content and doesn’t determine SpO2, and carbon dioxide bound to hemoglobin or nitrogen in red blood cells aren’t what the device measures to compute SpO2.

The main idea is that SpO2 reflects how much of the body's hemoglobin is carrying oxygen, not how much oxygen is simply dissolved in plasma. A pulse oximeter uses light at two wavelengths to distinguish oxyhemoglobin (oxygen-bound) from deoxyhemoglobin (without oxygen) in arterial blood and reports the percentage of hemoglobin molecules that are oxygenated. Oxygen dissolved in plasma is a very small part of total oxygen content and doesn’t determine SpO2, and carbon dioxide bound to hemoglobin or nitrogen in red blood cells aren’t what the device measures to compute SpO2.

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