Monitoring of the Oxygen Pressure in the Blood of Live Animals Using the Oxygen Dependent Quenching of Phosphorescence

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Abstract
The oxygen dependent quenching of phosphorescence has proven a powerful method for measuring oxygen pressure in biological samples (see for examples Vanderkooi et al, 1987; Wilson et al, 1988, Rumsey et al, 1988; Robiolio et al, 1989). The method has a rapid response time (msec) and can accurately measure oxygen pressure throughout the physiologically important range (760 Torr down to 10-2 Torr). One of it’s most promising applications is to measure the oxygen pressure in the tissue of living animals (Wilson et al, this book). Addition of the phosphorescent probes to the blood, for example, allows measurement of the phosphorescence by non invasive optical techniques, thereby making possible direct calculation of the oxygen pressure in the observed area as the changes occur. In order to most effectively utilize this new tool it is necessary to develop both an instrument capable of making the measurements and a thorough understanding of the behavior of the phosphorescence in this environment. One important aspect of that environment is the presence of a continuum of oxygen pressures in the field of observation, ranging from the arteriols to the veinous drainage vessels. Thus the phosphorescence decay curve is expected to be a summation of many decay curves of unequal initial values.