Measurement of cerebral venous saturation in adults using near infrared spectroscopy.

Abstract

Saturation measurements have long been used to provide information about oxygenation levels within tissue in the form of a single percentage value. Whilst the measurement of peripheral arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2) provides useful information about the delivery of oxygen to the brain, a measure of the actual level of cerebral oxygen consumption and uptake would be a more useful guide for the direction of therapies. Oxygen consumption is the product of cerebral blood flow (CBF) and the difference between arterial and venous oxygen content. Measurements of cerebral venous saturation can therefore be used as an indicator of oxygen consumption and have been shown to be a useful clinical parameter in the management of patients with compromised cerebral haemodynamics (Garlick et al., 1987, Cruz et al., 1991).KeywordsCerebral Blood FlowCerebral Blood VolumeJugular BulbSaturation MeasurementUnited Kingdom IntroductionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.