Transcutaneous partial oxygen tension and skin blood flow monitoring: continuous, noninvasive measures of cardiorespiratory change.

Transcutaneous partial oxygen tension (tc pO2) and skin blood flow (via heat clearance) were measured noninvasively in 22 male subjects who performed stress-inducing tasks (i.e. hand-grip exercise, cold pressor test, breath holding, hyperventilation and mirror-tracing). An analysis of variance and covariance was conducted for tc pO2, heat clearance, heart rate, respiration rate, finger pulse volume and systolic/diastolic blood pressure. Results indicate that tc pO2 can depict phasic cardiorespiratory challenge. Heat clearance proved to be less sensitive to the demand conditions used here. An analysis of covariance revealed a negative correlation between tc pO2 and blood pressure and respiration rate, as well as a positive correlation between tc pO2 and heat clearance. This suggests that phasic changes in tc pO2 are induced by both peripheral vasomotor activity and changes in arterial pO2.