Development of an Implantable Oxygen Sensor

An important parameter to be measured in the physiological study of living tissue is the amount of dissolved oxygen. These pO2measurements, for the most part, are made by periodically withdrawing specimens of body fluids and performing the measurement on the exogenous sample. This technique, while highly accurate for the particular specimens, has severe limitations in that only periodic samples can be made and the results of the measurement are not immediately available. Continuous measurement of pO2would provide a great contribution to our understanding of physiological processes, as well as allow for ``on line´´ monitoring of critically ill patients.