Full Finger Reperfusion Time Measured by Pulse Oximeter Waveform Analysis in Children.

OBJECTIVES: Capillary refill time is a noninvasive method to assess tissue perfusion to determine shock status. Capillary refill time is defined as the time required to regain skin color after blanching pressure is applied. Although common methods to measure capillary refill time depend on clinicians' visual assessment, a new approach using a pulse oximeter waveform analysis exists, referred to as full finger reperfusion time. We aim to evaluate reproducibility and validity of the novel full finger reperfusion time measurement using clinicians' visual capillary refill time assessment as a reference standard.

DESIGN: Prospective observational study.

SETTING: PICUs and operating suites at a large academic children's hospital.

PATIENTS: Ninety-nine children 1-12 years old with various skin color tones.

INTERVENTIONS: Each child had 10 measurements, including five full finger reperfusion time and five clinician capillary refill time, alternating second and third digits.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Eighteen children had prolonged capillary refill time (> 2 s) and four children with capillary refill time greater than 3 seconds. Four-hundred eighty-five data pairs were analyzed. Intraclass correlation coefficient of full finger reperfusion time within each patient was 0.76 (95% CI, 0.68-0.83), demonstrating good reproducibility. Correlation coefficient between full finger reperfusion time and clinician capillary refill time was moderate: r = 0.37 (p < 0.0001; 95% CI, 0.29-0.44) for the pairs and r = 0.52 (p < 0.0001; 95% CI, 0.36-0.65) for patient average. Bland-Altman plot showed a consistent difference between full finger reperfusion time and clinician capillary refill time (full finger reperfusion time 1.14 s longer). Weak association was found between force and full finger reperfusion time (β = -0.033 ± 0.016; 95% CI, -0.065 to -0.0016; p = 0.04), finger thickness (β = -0.20 ± 0.089; 95% CI, -0.37 to -0.19; p = 0.03), except for color tone (p = 0.31). Finger temperature was associated with full finger reperfusion time (β = -0.18 ± 0.041; 95% CI, -0.26 to -0.0999; p < 0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS: Full finger reperfusion time demonstrated good reproducibility. Full finger reperfusion time showed moderate correlation with clinician capillary refill time. Full finger reperfusion time was 1.14 seconds longer than capillary refill time. Future studies should focus on the clinical value of full finger reperfusion time as a monitoring device for hemodynamics in critically ill children.