Methods for non-invasive measurement of blood electrolyte concentration

Abstract

The present invention provides methods for non-invasive spectroscopic measurement of the concentration of an electrolyte, such as, sodium, potassium, or calcium ion, in a subject's blood. In one embodiment of a method according to the invention, calibration spectra are obtained from a group of subjects having variable blood electrolyte concentrations, and simultaneously blood is drawn from these subjects for measuring reference electrolyte concentrations. Standard multivariate calibration methods are employed to develop one or more calibration equations, based on the calibration spectra and the reference measurements. These calibration equations can be employed to analyze spectra obtained from a new subject to non-invasively determine the concentration of the electrolyte of interest.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.