Pulse oximetry in the pulmonary tissue for the non-invasive measurement of mixed venous oxygen saturation

The oxygen saturation of the systemic arterial blood is associated with the adequacy of respiration, and can be measured non-invasively by pulse oximetry in the systemic tissue. The oxygen saturation of the blood in the pulmonary artery, the mixed venous blood, reflects the balance between oxygen supply to the systemic tissues and their oxygen demand. The mixed venous oxygen saturation has also clinical significance because it is used in Fick equation for the quantitative measurement of cardiac output. At present the measurement of the mixed venous oxygen saturation is invasive and requires insertion of a Swan-Ganz catheter into the pulmonary artery. We suggest a noninvasive method for the measurement of the mixed venous oxygen saturation in infants, pulmonary pulse oximetry. The method is similar to the systemic pulse oximetry, which is based on the different light absorption curves of oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin and on the analysis of photoplethysmographic curves in two wavelengths.