Non-invasive measurement of blood and tissue parameters based on VIS-NIR spectroscopy

Currently, invasive methods are used to measure the hemoglobin concentration and the most hemoglobin-derivatives, whereby blood is taken from the patient and subsequently analyzed. The noninvasive method presented here allows pain free continuous on-line patient monitoring with minimum risk of infection and facilitates real time data monitoring allowing immediate clinical reaction to the measured data. Visible and near infrared (VIS-NIR) spectroscopy in combination with photo-plethysmography (PPG) is used for a detection of human tissue properties and the measurement of hemoglobin concentration in whole blood and hemoglobin derivatives. The absorption, scattering and the anisotropy of blood and tissue is a function of the irradiated wavelengths. This fact is used to calculate the optical absorbability characteristic of blood and tissue which is yielding information about blood components like hemoglobin-concentration (cHb), carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) and arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2). The ratio between the PPG peak to peak pulse amplitudes for each wavelength is used in combination with a dynamic spectrum extraction. The prediction of the bloodand tissue-parameters is based on a Principal Component Regression (PCR) method. The non-invasive sensor system is calibrated with a lab based artificial blood circulatory system and with data from clinical studies.