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Fetal and neonatal cerebral oxygen monitoring with NIRS: theory and practice
P Rolfe1, Y A Wickramasinghe, M S Thorniley
1Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics, Keele University, Hospital Centre, Stoke-on-Trent, UK.
Abstract:
Near infra-red spectroscopy (NIRS) is a comparatively new method for monitoring the oxygenation in blood and tissue in the brain of the fetus and the neonate. Absorption of light in the wavelength range 700-1000 nm through such tissue is measured, which is then used to calculate changes in the concentration of cerebral oxygenated and de-oxygenated haemoglobin (HbO2 and Hb) and hence cerebral blood volume (CBV). Studies carried out on several groups of newborn babies have shown clear changes in HbO, Hb and CBV with hypoxia and bradycardia. These changes may well have implications in the occurrence of hypoxic/ischaemic brain injury. Intra partum NIR measurements on the fetal brain have demonstrated clear changes in HbO2, Hb and CBVm, coinciding with the onset of contractions.