title: Mass spectrometer system for continuous skin-surface and intravascular blood gas measurement of maternal-fetal respiration in labour.
abstract: This paper describes the performance characteristics of a dual-inlet mass spectrometer suitable for continuous monitoring of maternal and fetal blood gases using intra-arterial mass spectrometer catheters in the pregnant ewe and skin-surface mass spectrometer probes during human labour. Skin-surface measurements in newborn and adult sheep bore a close and easily interpretable relationship to intra-arterial measurements. The performance of the skin-surface mass spectrometer probe on the human forearm compared favourably with a commercially available transcutaneous electrochemical system for the measurement of oxygen and carbon dioxide but the mass spectrometer was capable of measuring additional gases such as nitrogen and argon.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001698:Biomedical Engineering; D001784:Blood Gas Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D001785:Blood Gas Monitoring, Transcutaneous / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005323:Fetal Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007743:Labor, Obstetric; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D008431:Maternal-Fetal Exchange; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000097:blood*; D012756:Sheep