Walking off the pain of peripheral artery disease (PAD) could be a lot easier for patients with the help light sensors.
At least that’s what Jonathan Murrow, cardiologist and faculty member at the Georgia Regents University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership in Athens, Ga., is hoping to find.
Murrow is the principal investigator for an American Heart Association-funded
study exploring the use of sophisticated light sensors in the treatment of PAD.
Walking or exercise regimens can help to relieve painful symptoms of the disease – a common circulatory problem in which narrowed arteries reduce blood flow to a patient’s limbs. But patients can become discouraged with the walking programs because of the extreme leg pains they experience.
A noninvasive approach to measuring oxygen levels in the leg muscles could help to determine at what rate the patient needs to walk in order to reach desired results. Similar to the pulse oximeter placed on patients’ fingertips to measure oxygen saturation, these light sensors use powerful spectroscopy light to permeate denser tissue such as leg muscle.
Researchers hope that the light sensor study can help determine how exercise can be used in treating PAD and prevent patients from having to undergo surgery for peripheral angioplasties, according to the
Athens Banner-Herald.