Non-invasive optical methods for the study of cerebral metabolism in the human newborn: a technique for the future?

Two of the major causes of death and disability in the preterm newborn of the developed nations are cerebral ischaemia and intraventricular haemorrhage. It is estimated that intraventricular haemorrhage develops in 40-50% of infants with a birthweight of 1500 g or less but precisely how many individuals are affected by haemorrhage, or how many cases of disability are antedated by cerebral ischaemia, is not known because of the lack of effective low-cost instruments for the continuous, or at least frequent, assessment of cerebral metabolic status in the high-risk individual. In the future, however, fibre-optic-based spectrophotometric techniques for the measurement of cerebral redox state may provide low-cost, portable instruments for the noninvasive assessment of cerebral metabolism during the intensive care of the neonate.