A novel near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) system for measuring regional oxygen saturation

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) offers a continuous, non-invasive method of measuring biological tissue oxygenation. However, on-line, consistent quantitative measurements of oxy- and deoxyhemoglobin concentrations and tissue oxygen saturation by NIRS have met with challenging problems. We have developed a novel NIRS system that minimizes these problems in monitoring regional tissue oxygen saturation of the brain and skeletal muscle. The results show that our NIRS system measured tissue oxygen saturation levels that were expected in the experiments.