Patent ID: 9693717
Date: 2017-07-04
CPC Classifications: A61B

Claim:
1. A method for non-invasively determining a blood oxygen saturation level within a subject's lower gastrointestinal (GI) tissue, which tissue defines a lower GI tract of the subject, comprising: non-invasively sensing the subject's lower GI tissue using a spectrophotometric sensor having at least one light source and at least one light detector, which sensing includes transmitting light from the light source into the subject's lower GI tissue and GI tract at a plurality of wavelengths in a range of about 600 nm to about 900 nm at an initial intensity, and sensing the transmitted light after passage of the transmitted light through the subject's lower GI tissue and lower GI tract using the at least one light detector, and producing signal data representative of a detected intensity of the sensed light; using at least one processor to determine: