ABSTRACT
Introduction: Perfusion Index (PI) is an indirect, non invasive and continuous method to measure peripheral perfusion. In case of circulatory shock, the peripheral tissue bed is assumed to be sacrificed first and reperfused last in resuscitation. Aim: To measure the peripheral PI from different fingers of both hands in healthy healthcare workers of a tertiary care hospital. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Coronavirus Disease- 2019 (COVID-19) designated healthcare hospital in January 2021. In this study, healthy volunteers with the age of 18-60 years were included. All the volunteers were evaluated with a pulse oximeter in all extremities of both the hands to check their PI. For significant results of repeated measure of ANOVA, post-hoc Bonferroni test were used to evaluate all multiple comparisons. All p-values <0.05 were considered significant. Results: A total of 96 healthcare volunteers with the mean age of 35.25±11.074 years were included in the present study. Majority of the population were male (80.2%). The highest perfusion was recorded in the right hand ring finger (8.59±4.03%). The lowest reading was noted in the right hand thumb (6.27±2.89%). The PI noted in the right thumb was significantly less than all the other fingers (p-value <0.05) except left thumb and left little finger (p-value >0.05). Conclusion: From this study, authors more emphasis on the choice of the finger during the measurement of PI because both highest and lowest perfusions were reported in the dominant hand.