[Transcutaneous measurement of pO2.(author's transl)]

An apparatus which allowed the measurement of transcutaneous paO2 (tcpO2) was tested on adults in an intensive care unit. The correlation between tcpO2 and blood paO2 was satisfactory (r = 0.91, n = 111), but the slope of the regression line was variable from one subject to another. On account of the poor transfer of information from the arterial blood to the skin surface, this slope could be very flat (0.43 in one of the subjects in the study). The response time of the apparatus was very short and allowed a study of the effect on the individual of variations in FIO2. The equipment appears useful for continuous non invasive monitoring of the progress of the pO2, but it cannot directly give the true value of the paO2.