Patent ID: 8078249

Claim:
Apparatus for measuring a selected characteristic of a patient's blood, comprising: (a) a sensor carrier including a flexible sheet-like member having a pair of opposite faces; (b) first and second electronic sensors mounted on said sensor carrier, said first sensor being directed outwardly from a first one of said pair of opposite faces and said second sensor being directed outwardly from the other one of said pair of opposite faces, each of said first and second sensors having a respective receptor capable of providing a receptor output signal representative of a level of a selected characteristic of blood within an adjacent blood-containing structure, said sensor carrier and said first and second sensors collectively being small enough to be placed within said patient's body cavity and proximate said patient's heart, permitting substantially simultaneous observation of blood in a first blood-containing structure by said first sensor and of blood in a second blood-containing structure by said second sensor without mechanical penetration of either of said blood-containing structures by either of said first and second sensors.