Use of near infrared spectroscopy for estimation of peripheral venous saturation in newborns: comparison with co-oximetry of central venous blood.

In the intensive care of sick infants, the global oxygen reserve capacity is estimated by co-oximetry (co-ox) of blood sampled from central venous catheters. Introduction of a noninvasive alternative is desirable. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) offers a technique for noninvasive bedside monitoring of tissue oxygen economy. We studied the relation between peripheral venous oxyhemoglobin saturation (SvO(2)) estimated by venous occlusion and NIRS, and the central SvO(2) measured by co-ox of central venous blood. We report the high reproducibility of NIRS with a test-retest variation of only 2.51 +/- 1.41%. After bias adjusting of NIRS SvO(2) values, a nice correlation (r = 0.96, p > 0.05) between NIRS measurements of peripheral SvO(2) and co-ox of central venous blood was found. The study indicates that NIRS is practical for monitoring relative changes in central venous saturation. This might be useful in the future clinical care of newborns.