Measurement of Rat Brain Spectra

Abstract

The proper functioning of the human brain is strongly dependent on a sufficient supply of blood oxygen. Thus the monitoring of cerebral blood oxygen levis is of clinical importance in a wide variety of medical fields such as anaesthesiology, brain surgery, pediatrics and haemotology. But the direct monitoring of cerebral blood oxygen levels has been difficult to achieve using conventional means. For example, although PO₂ analysis of blood sampled from the carotid artery is often practiced, the values obtained do not necessarily represent the PO₂ of the brain itself.