Table 4. Reference values for pulse oximetry recordings in healthy term neonates during their first 5 days of life for 7 different averaging times and three SpO₂ thresholds.

SpO2		Based on ‘SIQ’ definition				Based on ‘SIQ & PW’ definition
Threshold (%)	T (sec)	Median	75th Centile	95th Centile	Maximum	Median	75th Centile	95th Centile	Maximum
90	3	1.78	4.61	15.52	47.14	0.78	2.50	8.38	36.43
	5	1.14	2.95	9.92	30.14	0.50	1.60	5.36	23.29
	8	0.75	1.95	6.57	19.97	0.33	1.06	3.55	15.43
	10	0.62	1.61	5.41	16.42	0.27	0.87	2.92	12.69
	12	0.53	1.37	4.61	14.00	0.23	0.74	2.49	10.82
	14	0.46	1.20	4.03	12.23	0.20	0.65	2.17	9.45
	16	0.41	1.06	3.58	10.88	0.18	0.58	1.93	8.41
85	3	0.00	0.42	1.74	15.00	0.00	0.21	1.07	11.19
	5	0.00	0.25	1.07	9.22	0.00	0.13	0.66	6.88
	8	0.00	0.16	0.68	5.89	0.00	0.08	0.42	4.39
	10	0.00	0.13	0.55	4.76	0.00	0.07	0.34	3.55
	12	0.00	0.11	0.46	4.00	0.00	0.06	0.29	2.98
	14	0.00	0.10	0.40	3.45	0.00	0.05	0.25	2.58
	16	0.00	0.08	0.35	3.04	0.00	0.04	0.22	2.27
80	3	0.00	0.00	0.54	2.32	0.00	0.00	0.39	1.74
	5	0.00	0.00	0.31	1.34	0.00	0.00	0.22	1.00
	8	0.00	0.00	0.19	0.80	0.00	0.00	0.14	0.60
	10	0.00	0.00	0.15	0.63	0.00	0.00	0.11	0.47
	12	0.00	0.00	0.12	0.52	0.00	0.00	0.09	0.39
	14	0.00	0.00	0.10	0.44	0.00	0.00	0.07	0.33
	16	0.00	0.00	0.09	0.38	0.00	0.00	0.06	0.28

The basic values are based on a clinical study where an averaging time of 2–4 s has been used for desaturations with an arbitrary minimal duration. When applying our formula the reference values for 6 other averaging times could be calculated (SIQ: signal quality indicator; PW: pulse waveform; SpO2: pulse oximeter saturation; T (sec): Averaging time in seconds.