Meanings
- uncountablemedicineA spurious measurement of oxygen saturation of blood, giving a false appearance of hypoxemia; it can happen via technical problems (such as a malfunctioning pulse oximeter) or even when all technical details are correct but hyperleukocytosis or thrombocytosis is present and the testing method is blood gas analysis.
Pseudohypoxaemia or spurious hypoxaemia is a recurrent problem faced on arterial blood gas analysis in patients with hyperleucocytosis leading to management dilemmas and unnecessary respiratory interventions. Various methods have been suggested to reduce the magnitude of this problem.
2012, K.N. Prasad, Prabhu Manjunath, L. Priya, and Sanjay Sasikumar, “Overcoming the problem of pseudohypoxemia in myeloproliferative disorders: another trick in the bag”, in Indian Journal of Critical Care Medicine, volume 16, number 4, →DOI, →PMID, →PMCID, pages 210–2122 more examples
Pseudohypoxemia or spurious hypoxemia represents a low oxygen tension or saturation in an arterial blood sample that does not correspond with the actual levels in the body. […] A young patient with leukemia and extreme leukocytosis (hyperleukoctosis) who demonstrated pseudohypoxemia is described herein. Clinical experiments on the arterial blood sample from this patient revealed that the phenomenon of pseudohypoxemia was most likely caused by a rapid in vitro oxygen consumption by the excessively large number of immature leukemic cells.
1998, Valentina Di Boscio, Udaya Prakash, “Pseudohypoxemia caused by hyperleukocytosis”, in Journal of Bronchology, volume 5, number 1, pages 43-46False readings of low oxygen content are rare but can be expected in specific clinical scenarios such as leukemia patients with marked leukocytosis who can develop "leukocyte larceny," a phenomenon of excess oxygen consumption by leukocytes. […] This case report presents a patient with marked leukocytosis from chronic myelogenous leukemia whose extubation was briefly delayed due to pseudohypoxemia on ABG measurements.
2022, Saeid Mirzai, Mark Andreae, Chethan Puttarajappa, “Pseudohypoxemia from leukocyte larceny in a patient with chronic myelogenous leukemia”, in Cureus, volume 14, number 1, →DOI, →PMID, →PMCID, page e21405
Origin
Cite this entry
pseudohypoxemia. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pseudohypoxemia
“pseudohypoxemia.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pseudohypoxemia. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pseudohypoxemia,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pseudohypoxemia.
Source: pseudohypoxemia on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.