Measuring Tissue Oxygen Saturation Using NIR Spectroscopy

Abstract

Tissue oxygen saturation (StO(2)) is known quite useful parameter for medical applications. A spectroscopic method has been developed to diagnose pathologic tissues due to lack of normal blood circulation by measuring tissue oxygen saturation. In the study, human blood samples with different level of oxygen saturations have been prepared and spectra were taken using an optical fiber probe to investigate correlation between the oxygen saturations and the spectra. The experimental set up for the spectroscopic measurements was consists of a miniature NIR light spectrometer, an optical fiber probe, a halogen-tungsten light source and a laptop. A linear correlation between the oxygen saturation of the blood samples and the ratio of the light of wavelengths 660 nm to 790 nm has been found from the spectra. Then, oxygen saturations of the blood samples were estimated from the spectroscopic measurements within an error of 2.9%. Furthermore, it has been shown that the linear dependence between the ratio and the oxygen saturation of the blood samples was valid for the blood samples with different hematocrits. Tissue oxygen saturation has been estimated from the spectroscopic measurements were taken from the fingers of healthy volunteers using the correlation between the spectra and blood oxygen saturation. The tissue StO(2) measured was 80% as expected. The technique developed to measure tissue oxygen saturation has potential to diagnose premalignant tissues, follow up prognosis of cancerous tissues, and evaluation of ischemia reperfusion tissues.