Reproducibility of cerebral tissue oxygen saturation measurements by near-infrared spectroscopy in newborn infants

Early detection of cerebral hypoxemia is an important aim in neonatology. A relevant parameter to assess brain oxygenation may be the cerebral tissue oxygen saturation (StO(2)) measured by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). So far the reproducibility of StO(2) measurements was too low for clinical application, probably due to inhomogeneities. The aim of this study was to test a novel sensor geometry which reduces the influence of inhomogeneities. Thirty clinically stable newborn infants, with a gestational age of median 33.9 (range 26.9 to 41.9) weeks, birth weight of 2220 (820 to 4230) g, postnatal age of 5 (1 to 71) days were studied. At least four StO(2) measurements of 1 min duration were carried out using NIRS on the lateral head. The sensor was repositioned between measurements. Reproducibility was calculated by a linear mixed effects model. The mean StO(2) was 79.99 ± 4.47% with a reproducibility of 2.76% and a between-infant variability of 4.20%. Thus, the error of measurement only accounts for 30.1% of the variability. The novel sensor geometry leads to considerably more precise measurements compared to previous studies with, e.g., ∼5% reproducibility for the NIRO 300. The novel StO(2) values hence have a higher clinical relevance.