Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2024 Apr 9;14(8):785.
doi: 10.3390/diagnostics14080785.

Recent Technologies for Transcutaneous Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide Monitoring

Sara Bernasconi  1 , Alessandra Angelucci  1 , Anastasia De Cesari  1 , Aurora Masotti  1 , Maurizio Pandocchi  1 , Francesca Vacca  1 , Xin Zhao  1 , Chiara Paganelli  1 , Andrea Aliverti  1
Affiliations
Review

Recent Technologies for Transcutaneous Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide Monitoring

Sara Bernasconi et al. Diagnostics (Basel). .

Abstract

The measurement of partial pressures of oxygen (O2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) is fundamental for evaluating a patient's conditions in clinical practice. There are many ways to retrieve O2/CO2 partial pressures and concentrations. Arterial blood gas (ABG) analysis is the gold standard technique for such a purpose, but it is invasive, intermittent, and potentially painful. Among all the alternative methods for gas monitoring, non-invasive transcutaneous O2 and CO2 monitoring has been emerging since the 1970s, being able to overcome the main drawbacks of ABG analysis. Clark and Severinghaus electrodes enabled the breakthrough for transcutaneous O2 and CO2 monitoring, respectively, and in the last twenty years, many innovations have been introduced as alternatives to overcome their limitations. This review reports the most recent solutions for transcutaneous O2 and CO2 monitoring, with a particular consideration for wearable measurement systems. Luminescence-based electronic paramagnetic resonance and photoacoustic sensors are investigated. Optical sensors appear to be the most promising, giving fast and accurate measurements without the need for frequent calibrations and being suitable for integration into wearable measurement systems.

Keywords: continuous monitoring; non-invasive monitoring; transcutaneous CO2 monitoring; transcutaneous O2 monitoring; wearable measurement systems.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper. However, it is important to note that Andrea Aliverti, Alessandra Angelucci, and Sara Bernasconi are inventors of a patent (WO2023180948A1) entitled “Wearable device for noninvasive measuring the partial pressure of transcutaneous co2 of a person and related method of measurement”. This patent is directly pertinent to the subject matter discussed in the present review article.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Representation of the non-pulsatile and pulsatile blood components determining the plethysmography pulse range measurement.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Timeline of oxygen and carbon dioxide sensors for transcutaneous gas monitoring.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Transcutaneous sensors for oxygen detection. (a) Electrochemical sensor for transcutaneous oxygen detection positioned at ear lobe; (b) optical thin film sensor (adapted from [64]); and (c) SPOT chip, exploiting electronic paramagnetic resonance (adapted from [7]).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Time domain representation of dual lifetime referencing signal for different values of carbon dioxide. A1 is the signal obtained from CO2-insensitive luminophore, while A2 and A4 are the signals of the fluorophore. A3 represents the total luminescence during the period in which the LED is off (Adapted from [65]).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Conceptual design of a rate-based monitor, including all the components: valve, fan (or pump), sensor, and sampler chamber [1].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Costanzo I.M., Sen D., Rhein L., Guler U. Respiratory Monitoring: Current State of the Art and Future Roads. IEEE Rev. Biomed. Eng. 2020;15:103–121. doi: 10.1109/RBME.2020.3036330. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Costanzo I., Sen D., Adegite J., Rao P.M., Guler U. A Noninvasive Miniaturized Transcutaneous Oxygen Monitor. IEEE Trans. Biomed. Circuits Syst. 2021;15:474–485. doi: 10.1109/TBCAS.2021.3094931. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Tufan T.B., Guler U. A Fluorescent Thin Film-Based Miniaturized Transcutaneous Carbon Dioxide Monitor; Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference (BioCAS); Berlin, Germany. 7–9 October 2021; pp. 1–5.
    1. Chatterjee M., Ge X., Kostov Y., Tolosa L., Rao G. A novel approach toward noninvasive monitoring of transcutaneous CO2. Med. Eng. Phys. 2014;36:136–139. doi: 10.1016/j.medengphy.2013.07.001. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mitsubayashi K., Wakabayashi Y., Murotomi D., Yamada T., Kawase T., Iwagaki S., Karube I. Wearable and flexible oxygen sensor for transcutaneous oxygen monitoring. Sens. Actuators B Chem. 2003;95:373–377. doi: 10.1016/S0925-4005(03)00441-6. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources