Factors that impact the need for and the effectiveness of blood transfusions depend on the recipient’s physiologic tolerance to acute anemia and the quality of the donor units that they receive. To date, indirect methods are used to determine the needs for blood transfusions and their efficacy in both clinical research and patient care settings. Methods that provide clear information on oxygen levels in tissues would fill both critical gaps in the global understanding of blood transfusion. However, only a limited number of techniques are truly useful to achieve the goals of assessing the direct measurement of tissue oxygen partial pressures (pO₂). This is because most methods do not directly measure tissue oxygen but instead are based on surrogates presumed to adequately define oxygenation of critical organs. This does not mean that indirect substitutes for tissue pO₂ have been valueless. Nonetheless, direct measurements are needed to understand oxygenation at the tissue level. This synopsis describes the potential role of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) oximetry to provide guidance in transfusion medicine, pointing out the current benefits and limitations of using this technique. Further, we suggest approaches toward evolving this technique to optimize measurements of oxygenation in proof-of-concept and clinical transfusion assessment settings.

影响输血需求和输血有效性的因素取决于受者对急性贫血的生理耐受性和他们接受的供体单位的质量。迄今为止，间接方法用于确定输血需求及其在临床研究和患者护理环境中的功效。提供有关组织中氧含量的明确信息的方法将填补全球输血理解中的两个关键空白。然而，只有有限数量的技术可真正用于实现评估组织氧分压 (pO ₂）。这是因为大多数方法并不直接测量组织氧含量，而是基于假定可以充分定义关键器官氧合的替代物。这并不意味着组织 pO _{2 的}间接替代品毫无价值。尽管如此，需要直接测量来了解组织水平的氧合。本概要描述了电子顺磁共振 (EPR) 血氧饱和度测定法在为输血医学提供指导方面的潜在作用，并指出了使用该技术的当前优势和局限性。此外，我们建议改进此技术以优化概念验证和临床输血评估设置中的氧合测量方法。