Data from: Perfusion index in newborns during critical congenital heart disease screening at 24 hours in healthy newborns: retrospective observational study from the United States

Objective: To describe the distribution of Perfusion Index (PI) in
asymptomatic newborns at 24 hours of life when screening for Critical
Congenital Heart Disease (CCHD) using an automated data selection method.
Design: This is a retrospective observational study. Setting: Newborn
nursery in a California public hospital with 3500 to 4000 deliveries
annually. Methods: We developed an automated program to select the PI
values from CCHD screens. Included were term and late preterm infants who
were screened for CCHD from November 2013 to January 2014 and from May
2015 to July 2015. PI measurements were downloaded every 2 seconds from
the pulse oximeter and median PI were calculated for each oxygen
saturation screen in our cohort. Results: We included data from 2768
oxygen saturation screens. Each screen had a median of 29 data points
(interquartile range 17 to 49). The median PI in our study cohort was 1.8
(95% confidence interval 1.8 to 1.9) with interquartile range 1.2 to 2.7.
The median pre-ductal PI was significantly higher than the median
post-ductal (1.9 vs. 1.8, p = 0.03) although this difference may not be
clinically significant. Conclusion: Using an automated data selection
method, the median PI in asymptomatic newborns at 24 hours of life is 1.8
with a narrow interquartile range of 1.2 to 2.7. This automated data
selection method may improve accuracy and precision compared to manual
data collection method. Further studies are needed to establish external
validity of this automated data selection method and its clinical
application for CCHD screening.