Product Manual

Technical Information
88
The SatSeconds limit controls the time that the %SpO2 level may fall
below the alarm limit before an audible alarm sounds.
The method of calculation is as follows:
The number of percentage points that the %SpO
2 falls outside the
alarm limit is multiplied by the number of seconds that the %SpO
2
level remains outside that limit. This can be stated as an equation:
Points x Seconds = SatSeconds
Where:
Points = SpO
2 percentage points outside of the limit
Seconds = number of seconds that SpO
2 remains at that point
outside of the limit
The alarm response time, assuming a SatSeconds limit set at 50 and a
lo
wer alarm limit set at 90, is described and illustrated below.
In this example, the %SpO
2 level drops to 88 (2 points) and remains
there for a period of 2 seconds (2 points x 2 seconds = 4). The
%SpO
2 then drops to 86 for 3 seconds and then to 84 for 6 seconds.
The resulting SatSeconds are:
%SpO2 Seconds SatSeconds
After approximately 10.9 seconds, the SatSeconds alarm will sound,
because 50 SatSeconds will have been exceeded. See arrow (
↑) in
Figure 6.
2x2= 4
4x3= 12
6x6= 36
Total Sat Seconds = 52