Design of a reflective pulse oximeter sensor and its evaluation in swine

A description is given of a series of tests to determine the repeatability and accuracy of a prototype reflectance pulse oximeter sensor on a swine model. Transcutaneous oxygen tension was measured as the animal´s oxygenation was varied. The experimental results show that the prototype reflectance sensors measure repeatable red/infrared ratios from animal-to-animal for all three measurement sites. SaO₂( p) measurements calculated from the red/infrared reflectance ratios from all three locations generally overestimated the accuracy of SaO₂ of arterial blood samples, with the accuracy of SaO₂(p) decreasing as the animal became more hypoxic