[Practical conduct for patients with a lonely hypoxemia at rest or during exercise].

INTRODUCTION

Hypoxemia is a decrease in blood oxygen partial pressure. This work aims at presenting a practical conduct for patients with a lonely hypoxemia at rest or during exercise, defined by the absence of dyspnea at rest, obvious clinical or radiographic abnormality.

STATE OF THE ART: Diagnostic tools available to the clinician are clinical examination, CT scan, echocardiography, hyperoxia test, trans cranial ultrasound and lung scintigraphy. This work proposes a practical diagnostic approach, with a main role of chest CT.

PERSPECTIVES: Work is underway to determine more precisely the place of echocardiography for the diagnosis of intra or extra cardiac shunts.

CONCLUSIONS

The finding of a lonely hypoxemia requires careful diagnostic approach to quickly rule out potentially serious causes and not to disregard the rare causes.