Near-Infrared Spectroscopy to Monitor Peripheral Blood Flow Perfusion

• Published in: Journal of clinical monitoring and computing Vol. 22; no. 1; pp. 37 - 43
• Main Authors: Harel, François, Denault, André, Ngo, Quam, Dupuis, Jocelyn, Khairy, Paul
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.01.2008; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Anesthesia. Intensive care medicine. Transfusions. Cell therapy and gene therapy; Anesthesiology; Biological and medical sciences; Blood. Blood and plasma substitutes. Blood products. Blood cells. Blood typing. Plasmapheresis. Apheresis; Critical Care Medicine; Cross-Over Studies; Female; Forearm - blood supply; Health Sciences; Humans; Hyperemia - diagnosis; Hyperemia - physiopathology; Intensive; Intensive care medicine; Male; Medical sciences; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Monitoring, Physiologic - methods; Plethysmography - methods; Prospective Studies; Regional Blood Flow - physiology; Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared - methods; Statistics for Life Sciences; Transfusions. Complications. Transfusion reactions. Cell and gene therapy; near-infrared spectroscopy; reactive hyperemia; peripheral perfusion; Near infrared spectrometry; Peripheral blood flow; Intensive care; Tonometry; Resuscitation; Reactive hyperemia
• ISSN: 1387-1307; 1573-2614
• DOI: 10.1007/s10877-007-9105-9

Background Non-invasive evaluation of peripheral perfusion may be useful in many contexts including peri-operative monitoring. We validated a novel non-invasive spectroscopy technique to assess peripheral perfusion. This method, which is based on the measurement of tissue saturation variations after an ischemic period, was compared to strain gauge plethysmography and radionuclide plethysmography. The technique uses near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to determine the rate of change of forearm tissue saturation during reactive hyperemia. Methods In a prospective crossover study, 25 subjects were simultaneously evaluated with NIRS and strain gauge plethysmography. Six baseline flow measurements were performed to assess the reproducibility of each method. Twenty-seven serial measurements were then made to evaluate flow variation during forearm reactive hyperemia. Results Strain gauge and NIRS methods showed excellent reproducibility with intra-class correlation coefficients of 0.96 and 0.93, respectively. Conclusion The NIRS technique appears well suited for the non-invasive evaluation of limb perfusion.