Non-invasive artificial pulse oximetry : development & testing

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The monitoring of patients in healthcare is of prime importance to ensure theirefficient treatment. The monitoring of blood oxygen saturation in tissuesaffected by diseases or conditions that may negatively affect the function is afield that has grown in importance in recent times.This study involved the development and testing of a highly sensitive noninvasiveblood oxygen saturation device. The device can be used to continuouslymonitor the condition of tissue affected by diseases which affect the blood flowthrough the tissue, and the oxygen usage in tissue. The device's system wasdesigned to specifically monitor occluded tissue which has low oxygensaturations and low perfusion. With the use of the device, it is possible tomonitor the status of tissue affected by diseases such as meningococcemia anddiabetes mellitus or conditions such as the recovery after plastic surgery.The study delved into all aspects involved in the development of a non-invasiveartificial pulse oximeter, including but not limited to that of a detailed devicedesign, signals analysis, animal in-vivo and laboratory in-vitro system design forthe calibration of the system as well as human clinical validation and testingprocedures. All these aspects were compared to determine the relativeaccuracies of the different models.Through testing it was shown that it is possible to non-invasively measure themixed oxygen saturation in occluded tissue. However, without accuratevalidation techniques and methods of obtaining both arterial and venous bloodsamples in occluded tissue the system could not be fully validated fordetermining both the arterial and venous oxygen saturations in the human invivostudy.Although the system was unable to accurately measure specifically the venousoxygenation it was able to measure the mixed oxygen saturation. With furtherresearch it would be possible to validate the system for measuring both thearterial and venous oxygen saturations.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University