Non-Invasive Optical Methods for the Study of Cerebral Metabolism in the Human Newborn: A Technique for the Future?

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Abstract
Two of the major causes of death and disability in the preterm newborn of the developed nations are cerebral ischaemia and intraventricular haemorrhage [1]. It is estimated that intraventricular haemorrhage develops in 40–50% of infants with a birthweight of 1500 g or less [2] but precisely how many individuals are affected by haemorrhage, or how many cases of disability are antedated by cerebral ischaemia, is not known because of the lack of effective low-cost instruments for the continuous, or at least frequent, assessment of cerebral metabolic status in the high-risk individual. In the future, however, fibre-optic-based spectraphotometric techniques for the measurement of cerebral redox state may provide low-cost, portable instruments for the noninvasive assessment of cerebral metabolism during the intensive care of the neonate.