Oxidation-reduction states of NADH in vivo:: From animals to clinical use

Mitochondrial dysfunction is part of many pathological tales in patients, such as sepsi or stroke. Presently, he monitoring of mitochondrial function in patients is extremely rare, even though NADH redox state is routinely measured in experimental animals. In this article, we describe the scientific backgrounds and practical use of mitochondrial NADH fluorescence measurement that was applied to patients in the past few years. In addition to NADH, we optically measured the microcirculatory blood flow and volume, as well as HbO(2) oxygenation, from the same tissue area. The four detected parameters provide real time data on tissue viability, which is critical for patients monitoring. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. and Mitochondria Research Society. All rights reserved.