Near Infrared Oxymetry

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and near-infrared optical imaging (NIRI) on turbid media such as biological tissue is a rapid growing field of interest. The techniques offer the ability to use light to non-invasive quantify metabolite concentration and to image structure within the human body. In particular methods for monitoring the blood volume are currently under study. Near infrared light (+/- 700-900 nm) is used in the applications because of the relative transparency of tissue to light in this wavelength region while the oxygen dependent absorption of hemoglobin is still observable.