Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) Scoping Review
Faculty
Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Supervisor Name
Dr. Stephanie Frisbee
Keywords
NIRS, cardiovascular, vascular measurement, vascular assessment
Description
Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) is a clinical non-invasive instrument that provides insight regarding the relative or absolute tissue oxygenation with respect to adequate delivery of oxygen and metabolic demands. The technique capitalizes on the light absorbance properties of heme-containing groups, hemoglobin and myoglobin, with the aim to assess the microvasculature oxygenation kinetics in many clinical populations. NIRS relies on two principles: a) tissue is relatively transparent to near-infrared light and b), the tissue has compounds such as hemoglobin in which light absorption depends on the oxygenation status of the tissue. By measuring light propagation in tissue, NIRS is able to detect changes in the relative concentration of different light-absorbing molecules. There are three main categories of near-infrared light spectrometers: continuous wave, time domain and frequency domain spectrometers.
This scoping review is one component of a larger series of reviews assessing perfusion, blood flow, and vascular structure in order to provide guidance for translational research scientists. This review examines 50 studies retrieved from a larger search of databases Embase and Medline. This review provides an overview of the pathophysiology underlying NIRS, the equipment and protocol for measuring NIRS, and provide a scoping review for the clinical and translational research applications of NIRS.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to the USRI program, as well as Dr. Stephanie Frisbee and Zachariah Schonberger.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Document Type
Event
Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) Scoping Review
Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) is a clinical non-invasive instrument that provides insight regarding the relative or absolute tissue oxygenation with respect to adequate delivery of oxygen and metabolic demands. The technique capitalizes on the light absorbance properties of heme-containing groups, hemoglobin and myoglobin, with the aim to assess the microvasculature oxygenation kinetics in many clinical populations. NIRS relies on two principles: a) tissue is relatively transparent to near-infrared light and b), the tissue has compounds such as hemoglobin in which light absorption depends on the oxygenation status of the tissue. By measuring light propagation in tissue, NIRS is able to detect changes in the relative concentration of different light-absorbing molecules. There are three main categories of near-infrared light spectrometers: continuous wave, time domain and frequency domain spectrometers.
This scoping review is one component of a larger series of reviews assessing perfusion, blood flow, and vascular structure in order to provide guidance for translational research scientists. This review examines 50 studies retrieved from a larger search of databases Embase and Medline. This review provides an overview of the pathophysiology underlying NIRS, the equipment and protocol for measuring NIRS, and provide a scoping review for the clinical and translational research applications of NIRS.