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Respiratory and pulmonary illnesses such as respiratory distress syndrome and transient tachypnoea of the newborn are leading causes of death among newborns. These morbidities result in lung collapse and reduction in the lung gas volume. While these conditions can be treated using surfactant administration and supplemental oxygen, continuous feedback on the health of the lung during these procedures can be helpful in improving their efficiency and avoiding later complications. Optical techniques like GASMAS (Gas in scattering media absorption spectroscopy) have shown considerable promise in this regard. The technique is non-invasive and non-ionizing and causes no short term or long term discomfort to the infant. It also allows for real time continuous monitoring of the oxygen content which is critical in a clinical setting. In this work, we discuss the results from a pilot clinical study performed at the INFANT Research Centre, Cork. A GASMAS device was used to measure the oxygen concentration of the lung in this healthy cohort of 100 healthy neonatal infants between 1 to 5 days of age. Lung oxygen concentration was measured at multiple locations and across multiple visits for each infant. The huge dataset allows us to understand the influence of different parameters such as the weight of the infant, chest circumference, location etc, on the instrument performance and recovered oxygen concentration. This information and understanding will set the stage for the next phase of the study which is aimed at a similar cohort of term and pre-term infants with respiratory morbidities.
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