# Blood Gas Analysis Without the Laboratory

> **NIH NIH R01** · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · 2024 · $735,939

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Blood gas analysis is a cornerstone of modern critical care medicine, providing essential insights into a patient's
respiratory and metabolic status. Measurements of blood pH as well as oxygen and carbon dioxide levels enable
diagnosis and management of a wide range of life-threatening medical conditions, including respiratory failure and
acid-base imbalances due to circulatory shock or metabolic derangement. The accurate and timely assessment
of blood gases is essential for effective treatment in the intensive care unit (ICU), particularly for mechanically
ventilated patients where adjustment of ventilator settings depends upon these measurements. Blood gas mea-
surements are typically made by drawing blood from an indwelling arterial or venous catheter and sending this
blood to a central core laboratory, where the analysis is run on calibrated machines and results then reported back
to the point of care. This process leads to delays in interpretation and clinical action and limits the availability of
blood gas analysis in many healthcare settings, including critical care patient transport and disaster medicine
scenarios involving field hospitals. Existing point of care blood gas analyzers suffer from limitations in accuracy
and cost and do not allow for high-frequency of measurements.
 The proposed program leverages novel physiologic sensors developed at the Wellman Center for Photo-
medicine to create and validate new technology for accurate, rapid, point-of-care, and high-frequency blood gas
analysis. Aim 1 will create a miniaturized and automated device that attaches externally to a standard arterial
catheter setup and allows direct sampling and immediate blood gas analysis from a small volume of blood at the
bedside. This device will be first tested in a preclinical swine model and subsequently validated using human sam-
ples from the intensive care unit, with results benchmarked against gold-standard hospital laboratory blood gas
analyzers. Aim 2 will develop next-generation continuous blood gas sensing technology leveraging miniaturized
fiber optic devices incorporated into an insert compatible with existing arterial catheters. This simple-to-operate,
continuous sensor will be similarly tested in a swine model system against current point-of-care devices. Together,
these Aims will significantly expand the accuracy, efficiency and accessibility of blood gas analysis and augment
the clinical utility of these measurements for many high-stakes scenarios in modern medicine.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10995833
- **Project number:** 1R01HL175892-01
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Aaron D Aguirre
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $735,939
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-08-26 → 2028-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10995833

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10995833, Blood Gas Analysis Without the Laboratory (1R01HL175892-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10995833. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*