Near-infrared spectroscopy in vegetables and humans: An observational study

BACKGROUNDCerebral near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) of tissue oxygen saturation is claimed to be a surrogate marker for global cerebral perfusion. Increasingly, NIRS target-based therapy has been used during cardiac surgery in the hope of decreasing the incidence of adverse neurological outcome. OBJECTIVESWe report NIRS values for some common vegetables and faculty at a world-class medical institution. DESIGNObservational nonblinded study. SETTINGSingle tertiary care institution and local urban vegetable market. PARTICIPANTSFive yams (Dioscorea cayenensis), five courgettes (Cucurbita pepo) and five butternut squashes (Cucurbita moschata) were studied. Five cardiothoracic surgeons and anaesthesiologists were the control group. INTERVENTIONSNone. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURESNIRS value of each species. RESULTSMean NIRS value for the control group was 71% [95% confidence interval (CI) 68 to 74] and was similar to that of the yellow squashes [75% (95% CI 74 to 76)]. These values were significantly greater than the NIRS measurements of both the butternut squash and yam [63% (95% CI 62 to 64) and 64% (95% CI 63 to 65), respectively, P