TITLE:
Pattern of respiratory-induced changes in fingertip blood volume measured by light transmission
AUTHORS:
Meir Nitzan, Daniel Dayan, Eran Shalom, Yuval Slovik, Alan Murray
KEYWORDS:
Light Absorption; Deep Breathing; Sympathetic Nervous system; Tissue Blood Volume
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Biomedical Science and Engineering,
Vol.4 No.8,
August
22,
2011
ABSTRACT: Respiratory-induced fluctuations in heart rate and arterial blood pressure have been intensively investigated, but there is little information on the effect of respiration on peripheral blood volume. In the current study, blood volume changes in the finger, obtained by light transmission measurements, were measured during regular breathing (6 s periods) and long breathing (12 s periods). Respiratory chest-circumference changes were simultaneously measured in order to associate the pattern of tissue blood volume change with the respiratory cycle. Sixteen subjects were studied, and in fourteen finger blood vol ume increased during inspiration and decreased during expiration in the long-breathing periods. In all 14 subjects the start of blood volume decrease was significantly delayed from the start of expiration by mean ± SD 1.00 ± 0.65 s (p