[Transcutaneous blood gas measurements in ergometry]

Blood gases were determined simultaneously both transcutaneously and arterially in 23 healthy male subjects during spiroergometric, exhaustion-limited stress. The individual correlation coefficient between arterially and transcutaneously measured pO2/pCO2 was 0.66 and 0.80, respectively. The median correlation coefficient between the individual correlation coefficients of the pO2 and pCO2 measurements was 0.85 (p less than 0.01). Hence, the validity of transcutaneous blood gas measurement under stress is significantly dependent on individual factors that influence both the pO2 and pCO2 measurements to an equal degree.