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Review
. 2025 Jan 2;17(1):e76820.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.76820. eCollection 2025 Jan.

The Diagnostic Accuracy of Pulse Oximetry for Assessing Pulp Vitality: A Systematic Review

Divya Gupta  1 , Amar K Shaw  2 , Ashwini Gaikwad  3 , Pallavi Kale  4 , Sneha M Deshpande  4 , Arti Gachake  5
Affiliations
Review

The Diagnostic Accuracy of Pulse Oximetry for Assessing Pulp Vitality: A Systematic Review

Divya Gupta et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

This review was performed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of pulse oximetry (PO) in patients with apical periodontitis (AP) or undergoing an endodontic treatment. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis-Diagnostic Test Accuracy (PRISMA-DTA) checklist was followed to carry out this review. The diagnostic potential of pulse oximetry for pulp vitality status was studied through databases like PubMed, Google Scholar, EBSCOhost from 2000 to 2024. Extraction or manual calculation of true-positive, false-positive, true-negative, false-negative, sensitivity, and specificity values were done. Quality assessment of diagnostic accuracy studies (QUADAS)-2 tool and RevMan ver. 5.3 qualitatively assessed the included studies. The included seven studies evaluated 654 teeth and reported a low risk of bias (ROB). The included studies evaluated the reliability, efficacy, and diagnostic ability of PO and compared it to other conventional pulp vitality and sensitivity tests like a cold test, thermal test, electric pulp test (EPT), spray, and rubber cups. Its overall sensitivity ranged from 81-100% (mean 95%) and overall specificity ranged from 94-100% (mean 99%). It was concluded that pulse oximetry overall is more reliable, superior, effective and has overall diagnostic efficacy in detecting the target condition compared to other conventional modalities.

Keywords: endodontics; pulp diagnosis; pulp vitality; pulse oximetry; systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest: In compliance with the ICMJE uniform disclosure form, all authors declare the following: Payment/services info: All authors have declared that no financial support was received from any organization for the submitted work. Financial relationships: All authors have declared that they have no financial relationships at present or within the previous three years with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work. Other relationships: All authors have declared that there are no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. PRISMA 2020 flow diagram
PRISMA - Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis
Figure 2
Figure 2. Cochrane risk of bias as percentages across all included studies
Figure 3
Figure 3. Cochrane risk of bias summary for each study
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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