The effect of hyperbaric oxygen on cerebral hemoglobin oxygenation and dissociation rate of carboxyhemoglobin in anesthetized rats: spectroscopic approach.

By measuring near-infrared transmittance spectra, we examined the effect of HBO on cerebral Hb oxygenation in normal and ischemic brain in the anesthetized rat. The oxygenation state of Hb was around 80% in the rat brain under 1 ATA air breathing. HBO did not induce further cerebral Hb oxygenation above 2 ATA in control animals but improved tissue oxygenation in the ischemic brains. The oxidation-reduction state of cyt. aa3 in the normal brain was not affected by HBO. In the ischemic brain, however, HBO prevented ischemia-induced reduction of cyt. aa3. Non-invasive optical monitoring of COHb with visible reflectance spectrophotometry was also examined. HBO markedly accelerated dissociation of COHb. Tight correlation was found between the optical signal and COHb content determined from blood samples. These results demonstrated the usefulness of optical monitoring in vivo under hyperbaric conditions.