Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide and intraocular pressure (IOP) is currently its only modifiable risk factor. Peak IOP has for a long time been considered as a major contributor to glaucoma progression, but its effects may depend not only on its magnitude, but also on its time course. The IOP is nowadays considered to be a dynamic parameter with a circadian rhythm and...

Evaluating the accuracy of medical devices has traditionally been a blend of statistical analyses, at times without contextualizing the clinical application. There have been a number of recent publications on the accuracy of a continuous noninvasive hemoglobin measurement device, the Masimo Radical-7 Pulse Co-oximeter, focusing on the traditional statistical metrics of bias and precision. In th...

The efficacy of a noninvasive hemoglobin monitoring device (Astrin, Sysmex, Kobe, Japan) was evaluated for healthy volunteers and for patients with hematologic disorders. At the same time, the effects of WBC counts on noninvasive monitoring were studied by clinical evaluation and in ex vivo experiments. The hemoglobin levels determined by the device (Ast-Hb) and a conventional analyzer (T-Hb) w...

New technologies for the noninvasive assessment of oxygen and carbon dioxide are transforming clinical practice. Transcutaneous monitoring of PO2 (PtcO2) and PCO2 (PtCO2) provides an approximation of PaO2 and PaCO2 values in hemodynamically normal individuals, but both PtcO2 and PtcCO2 diverge from the corresponding arterial values when cardiac output is reduced, even in the absence of hypotens...

Time-resolved detection and analysis of skin backscattered optical signals (remission photoplethysmography or PPG) provide rich information on skin blood volume pulsations and can serve for reliable cardiovascular assessment. Single- and multiple-channel PPG concepts are discussed. Simultaneous data flow from several locations on the human body allows us to study heartbeat pulse-wave propagatio...

Hepatic fibrosis is the main determinant of clinical outcomes of chronic hepatitis C. Liver histology is frequently considered the gold standard for assessing hepatic fibrosis. However, liver biopsy is associated with sampling error, interobserver variability, and potential complications. Thus, there is a need for simple, inexpensive, and reliable noninvasive means to assess disease severity in...

c o ntinued on page 4 Noninvasive Hemodynamic Monitoring Facilitates Organ Recovery E d i t o r’s Note: This article is based on an interview with Cynthia Willis, Cert i f i e d P ro c u rement Transplant Coord i n a t o r, LifeShare of the Carolinas in Charlotte, NC, and input from William Miles, MD, at Carolinas Medical Center, and Michael Bowdish, MD, cardiothoracic transplant surgeon at the...

The progression of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia was temporally monitored and quantified by real-time polymerase chain reaction of P. carinii-specific DNA in oral swabs and lung homogenates from infected rats. DNA levels correlated with the number of P. carinii organisms in the rats' lungs, as enumerated by microscopic methods. This report is the first of a noninvasive, antemortem method that ...