The utility of far-infrared illumination in oxygenation dynamics as measured with near-infrared spectroscopy

Abstract

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a noninvasive method for measuring the oxygenation in muscle and other tissues in vivo. For quantitative NIRS measurement of oxygenation dynamics, the vessel-occlusion test was usually applied as physiological intervention. There are several drawbacks of the vessel-occlusion method that include skin contact, uncomfortable and microcirculation block of patients. Thus, we propose the far-infrared (FIR) illumination as a new physiological intervention method in this paper. Our preliminary result shows a linear correlation of oxygenation dynamic signals between FIR illumination and arterial-occlusion test (AOT) that implies the FIR illumination could be applied for hemodynamic response measurement in clinical diagnosis. ((c) 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)