Influence of artificial nails on pulse oximetry reading

Abstract

Objetivo
To analyze the influence of artificial nails in pulse oximetry readings.
Method
It is a clinical-experimental study, with 100 healthy volunteers between 18 and 60 years old, in whom artificial nails were installed on the left hand, while the nails of the right hand did not change. Eligibility criteria were applied to then proceed to the peripheral oxygen saturation readings were collected from all fingers and a comparative study was carried out. Data normality was tested using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The means of control and experimental conditions for all variables and conditions were compared using Student's t-test for paired samples or the Wilcoxon test. All data were processed and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences - SPSS (IBM SPSS Statistics 20.0). A significance level of 5% was adopted for all tests performed.
Results
Statistically significant reduction of SpO2 was observed with artificial red nail (p<0.001);
artificial black nail (p<0.001); artificial silver nail (p<0.001) and synthetic pink glitter nail
polish (p=0.001).
Conclusion
The artificial nails tested resulted in a statistically significant difference in pulse oximetry
measurement, but it did not represent a clinically significant change in healthy volunteers.
Therefore, it is not necessary to remove the tested artificial nails routinely for proper monitoring.