Monitoring the heart rate in cerebral oximetry signals

Cerebral oximetry of the frontal lobes based on Near InfraRed Spectroscopy (NIRS) is used to monitor brain tissue oxygen saturation in 2-4 s intervals. However, higher sampling rates may enable heart rate (HR) monitoring. In total, 29 subjects were enrolled in 40 min recording sessions. Cerebral oxy-haemoglobin (O
₂
Hb) concentration at 50 Hz and the ECG were concurrently recorded. ECG was the reference for the HR algorithms based on the O
₂
Hb signal. The results show that accurate heart rate monitoring and beat detection on cerebral frontal lobe oximetry signals is feasible for normal heart conditions when the NIRS signals are sampled at high rates.