Oxygen saturation in the blood that is either too low or too high can cause lasting physical harm or even death. This is why patients’ oxygen concentrations are monitored continuously in both intensive care and trauma units. However, the pulse oximeters typically clipped onto a patient’s fingertip for this purpose can be unreliable. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Physical Measurement Techniques IPM have developed a fluorescence-based sensor that measures the oxygen content of people’s breath directly and in real time in an effort to provide accurate figures in the future. The sensor determines the O2 concentration in the respiratory gas according to the principle of fluorescence quenching, which allows conclusions to be drawn about the oxygen saturation in the blood.
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