Noninvasive method for measuring local hemoglobin oxygen saturation in tissue using wide gap second derivative near-infrared spectroscopy.

A simple continuous wave near-infrared algorithm for estimating local hemoglobin oxygen saturation in tissue (%StO2) is described using single depth attenuation measurements at 680, 720, 760, and 800 nm. Second derivative spectroscopy was used to reduce light scattering effects, chromophores with constant absorption, baseline/instrumentation drift, and movement artifacts. Unlike previous second derivative methods which focused primarily on measuring deoxyhemoglobin concentration; a wide 40 nm wavelength gap used for calculating second derivative attenuation significantly improved sensitivity to oxyhemoglobin absorption.