High-altitude cerebral oxygen saturation detection using wireless wearable cerebral oximeter

Juanning Si; Yifang He; Junyuan Yao; Jian Yu; Rixing Jing; Qing He; Xin Zhang; Lijun Xiao

doi:10.3389/fneur.2024.1445563

High-altitude cerebral oxygen saturation detection using wireless wearable cerebral oximeter

Front Neurol. 2024 Sep 30:15:1445563. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1445563. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Juanning Si¹, Yifang He¹, Junyuan Yao², Jian Yu^{3

4}, Rixing Jing¹, Qing He¹, Xin Zhang^{3

4}, Lijun Xiao^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ School of Instrumentation Science and Opto-Electronics Engineering, Beijing Information Science and Technology University, Beijing, China.
² Department of Psychology, Shandong Second Medical University, Weifang, China.
³ Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁴ National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁵ Department of Medical Psychology, The Third Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
⁶ Faculty of Pediatrics, The Seventh Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Background: Hypobaric hypoxic conditions encountered at high altitudes can significantly impact the physiological functions of human body. Therefore, accurate and real-time monitoring of physiological characteristics is crucial for the prevention of brain injuries in individuals with acute and chronic high-altitude exposure.

Methods: In this study, a wireless wearable cerebral oximeter (WORTH band) was used for the continuous, real-time monitoring of physiological parameters, including regional cerebral oxygen saturation (rSO2) and heart rate (HR), among subjects with high-altitude exposure.

Results: During the high-altitude (from 46 m to 4300 m) expedition task, there was a significant decrease in rSO2 accompanied by a corresponding increase in heart rate as the altitude increased. Additionally, during the long-term (52 days) high-altitude (from 356 m to 4658 m) cycling task, the altitudes were significantly correlated with the rSO2 and SpO2 in the elderly subjects.

Conclusion: The current findings indicate that the WORTH band oximeter can serve as a promising instrument for measuring rSO2 at high altitudes. We hope that the insights derived from this study could contribute to the management of cerebral oxygenation for individuals with high-altitude exposure and further expand the existing understanding of brain functional detection at high altitudes.

Keywords: cerebral oximeter; cerebral oxygen saturation; cycling; high altitude; hypoxia.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported in part by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2022YFC2408800), the Key Collaborative Research Program of the Alliance of International Science Organizations (Grant No. ANSO-CR-KP-2022-10), the Young Backbone Teacher Support Plan of Beijing Information Science &Technology University (grant number YBT 202409), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 7232049), and the first batch of Scientific Research Projects (0*12205).