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Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS)

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Springer Handbook of Medical Technology

Part of the book series: Springer Handbooks ((SHB))

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Abstract

One of the greatest challenges facing medicine is to treat the patient using real-time data that accurately reflect oxygen concentration in the patient’s tissue. Regulation of oxygen and its counterpart, carbon dioxide, is controlled by a large number of physiological control systems that are local, regional, and systemic. This key molecule is involved in oxidative metabolism and is an overall indicator of physiological well-being. Oxygen is attached to hemoglobin and released into cells, where it diffuses to mitochondria for utilization to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP) that powers all cellular functions. The biomedical value of nearinfrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is its ability to record oxygen levels, especially StO2, in a noninvasive manner. In clinical cases, peripheral StO2 values recorded from the forearm and thenar regions are frequently used as surrogates for central oxygen levels. Thus, NIRS holds the promise of being a major tool in normal and pathological functioning. Applications of this technology are far reaching and range from monitoring patients suffering from septic shock, type 2 diabetes to schizophrenia. Use of NIRS has great promise but suffers from two major types of issues: technical and physiological. There are different types of NIRS devices which detect oxygen concentrations using different probing strategies and different algorithms. In addition to the dissimilar NIRS technologies is the fact that the NIRS signal has a number of anatomical, e.g., fat, and physiological barriers, e.g., skin blood flow, before it reaches the muscle/organ vascular bed. Various regions of the body, e.g., thenar versus forearm, have dissimilar cardiovascular responses to physiology and pathophysiological conditions, making interpretation challenging. This chapter presents a brief overview of NIRS technology, its applicability, and promise.

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Authors
  1. John McNulty
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  2. Michael Born
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  3. Robert S. Pozos
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Titisee, Germany

    Rüdiger Kramme

  2. Medical Engineering and Neuroprosthetics, Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering, St. Ingbert, Germany

    Klaus-Peter Hoffmann

  3. Department of Biology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA

    Robert S. Pozos

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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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McNulty, J., Born, M., Pozos, R.S. (2011). Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS). In: Kramme, R., Hoffmann, KP., Pozos, R.S. (eds) Springer Handbook of Medical Technology. Springer Handbooks. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74658-4_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74658-4_22

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-74657-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-74658-4

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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