title: Optimal filter bandwidth for pulse oximetry.
abstract: Pulse oximeters contain one or more signal filtering stages between the photodiode and microcontroller. These filters are responsible for removing the noise while retaining the useful frequency components of the signal, thus improving the signal-to-noise ratio. The corner frequencies of these filters affect not only the noise level, but also the shape of the pulse signal. Narrow filter bandwidth effectively suppresses the noise; however, at the same time, it distorts the useful signal components by decreasing the harmonic content. In this paper, we investigated the influence of the filter bandwidth on the accuracy of pulse oximeters. We used a pulse oximeter tester device to produce stable, repetitive pulse waves with digitally adjustable R ratio and heart rate. We built a pulse oximeter and attached it to the tester device. The pulse oximeter digitized the current of its photodiode directly, without any analog signal conditioning. We varied the corner frequency of the low-pass filter in the pulse oximeter in the range of 0.66-15 Hz by software. For the tester device, the R ratio was set to R = 1.00, and the R ratio deviation measured by the pulse oximeter was monitored as a function of the corner frequency of the low-pass filter. The results revealed that lowering the corner frequency of the low-pass filter did not decrease the accuracy of the oxygen level measurements. The lowest possible value of the corner frequency of the low-pass filter is the fundamental frequency of the pulse signal. We concluded that the harmonics of the pulse signal do not contribute to the accuracy of pulse oximetry. The results achieved by the pulse oximeter tester were verified by human experiments, performed on five healthy subjects. The results of the human measurements confirmed that filtering out the harmonics of the pulse signal does not degrade the accuracy of pulse oximetry.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Shizuoka University, 432-8561 Hamamatsu, Japan. stuban@ett.bme.hu
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Stuban
authors.forename: Masatsugu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Niwayama
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D010092:Oximetry / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000378:metabolism; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen