Abstract
Sleep apnea syndrome (SAS) attracts an attention in recent years. As a screening medical checkup, we have established the screening inspection method using pulse oximetry in our institution. We examined problems and the usefulness of screening system we have established.
There were 122 (15.8%) cases of reexamination among 772 tourist industry drivers (760 men, 12 women, average age 37.4 years -old±10.5) who underwent mass screening with pulse oximetry. The reasons of reexamination include the directions by industrial physicians of companies in 53 cases (43.4%), shortage in examination time in 37 cases (30.4%), poor waveform in 15 cases (12.3%), no data in 13 cases (10.7%), shortage of battery in 2 cases (1.6%), and overtime in 2 cases (1.6%) . Industrial physicians suspected an inadequate probe attachment for insufficient results and recommended reexaminations, which resulted in much improvement in measurement data. Moreover, the poor waveform has been significantly improved by the recall. To make an operating manual more simple can also decrease in the incidence of reexamination.
Although the medical checkup method using pulse oximetry is a simple and useful method, it seems to be necessary for customers to understand the contents and methods of the examination, since customers themselves perform putting instrument on and measurement. An aggressive reexamination seems to result in an increase in accuracy of measurement.
