1. Measurement and Control of Oxygen Saturation Levels in Neonates
Group Members
Charlie Artime
Kit Eward
Suzanne Flanary
Heather Sweeney
Advisors
John Penn, PhD
Paul King, PhD

2. Background
Studies published by our advisor, Dr. John Penn, and others concluded that variability in blood oxygen saturation levels, along with prolonged exposure to hypoxic conditions, increases the risk for retinopathy of prematurity.1,2,3
Penn JS, et al. “The range of PaO2 variation determines the severity of oxygen-induced retinopathy in newborn rats.” Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci Sep;36(10):
Yoshihiro Saito, et al. “The Progression of retinopathy of prematurity and fluctuation in blood gas tension” Graefe's Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology 1993, 231:
Penn JS, et al. “Arterial Oxygen Fluctuation and Retinopathy of Prematurity in Premature Infants”

3. Retinopathy of Prematurity
Develops in over 20% of all very low birth weight premature infants (<1500g).
Characterized by abnormal blood vessel growth in the peripheral regions of the retina.
Leads to detachment of the retina and, in severe cases, blindness (13% of all ROP cases).
Leading cause of blindness in children.

4. Project Definition
Team project goal: design a computer- based integrator that recommends the proper adjustment in FiO2 to avoid fluctuation in SaO2.
Ultimate goal: monitor and control, with minimum variation, the blood oxygen saturation level of neonates in order to avoid development of retinopathy.

5. Device Specifications
Pulse Oximeter
Heart Rate
Oxygen Saturation Level (SaO2)
Integrator
Amount of O2 needed to adjust inspired air (FiO2)
Oxygen Blender
New FiO2

6. IWB Diagram

7. How Our Device Will Help
Currently, when neonates exhibit a significant change in blood oxygen saturation, adjustments to the fraction of oxygen in the inspired air must be made by hand.
Typically, this results in an overshoot of the blood oxygen saturation of the neonate, and stabilization to the acceptable SaO2 range can take hours.
This device can be used to help over 50,000 premature infants born each year at risk for developing ROP.

8. Work Completed Literature research
Preliminary experimentation with the respiratory gas monitor
Established liaison with NICU
Worked with Innovation Workbench software
Met with Dr. Lindstrom; obtained IBM laptop and Ohmeda oximeter similar to those used in the NICU.
Established link between laptop and oximeter and tested data collection.
Obtained last year’s SIMON data from Patrick Norris.

9. Current Work Making arrangements for data acquisition
Dr. Penn is currently contacting Dr. Lindstrom, Dr. Walsh, and several neonatology fellows.
Analyzing last year’s SIMON data.
Research the relationship between pulse rate and SaO2 in infants.
Tour NICU

10. Future Work and Timeline
Task
Feb.
March
April
Collect data from NICU
****
Designsafe analysis *
Analyze data to determine trends **
***
Determine monitor’s sensitivity characteristics
Write program to interpret data and determine necessary adjustments
**********
Test and Debug

11. Acknowledgements Dr. Paul King and Dr. John Penn
- project advisors
Dr. Dan Lindstrom, Dr. Bill Walsh, and Dr. Kendall Graham
-NICU
Patrick Norris
Dr. Richard Fries and Datex-Ohmeda