Fiber optic multiple blood gas analyzer

Blood gas analysis has been shown to be the most critical factor in determining patient survivability in a trauma care environment. Present techniques of non-invasive measurement of blood gases in the trauma care unit such as optical pulse oximetry and transcutaneous electrodes are inadequate due to complexity and inaccuracy. The crux of the solution to this problem is the application of a recent, DOD/NASA developed micro-optic spectrophotometer to perform blood gas analysis via fiber optic transmission. The newly developed blood gas analyzer described here will not only overcome the aforementioned drawbacks but also be highly accurate, durable, and safe in hazardous environments: e.g., oxygen rich environments. This spectrophotometer is driven by a microprocessor based `Kalman filter' algorithm which not only controls the monitoring of all the patients in the care center but also separates the patient's superimposed blood gas spectra into its individual components to allow a number of gases critical for trauma care to be analyzed simultaneously.