the lesson was spent watching quite a few youtube videos, little theory behind it.
we were talking about the different ways of measuring gases in the blood. there are two major ways.
the first, uses those thingies that they clip onto your thumb in hospital, a pulse oximeter. it measures the pulse because there are large arteries near the edge of the skin there. the way it measures gas is like this:
light (infrared and ultraviolet) is sent through the finger, and detectors on the other side pick up the signal. if the haemoglobin has oxygen, the signal will be more distorted. this is used to measure the % of oxygen in blood.
this can fail if there is carbon monoxide in the area. carbon monoxide attaches to haemoglobin, and it actually has higher priority than oxygen, and it cannot be dumped off like oxygen can. that's why high amounts of carbon monoxide is dangerous.
the other method of measuring blood gases is by simply using a blood test. blood is drawn from the second major artery in the radius of the non-dominant hand. it is taken to a lab for testing after.
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