MONITORING THE DEGREE OF HYDRATION OF THE HUMAN BODY

摘要

The invention relates to the field of monitoring the degree of hydration of the human body based on measuring the time for refilling an occluded blood vessel with blood, especially by measuring vein refilling time (VRT) and/or capillary refilling time (CRT). According to the invention, a method is proposed in which the blood vessel is occluded in order to remove the blood from the blood vessel; occlusion of the blood vessel is released in order to allow the blood to refill the blood vessel; tissue comprising the blood vessel with pulse light during refill of the blood vessel is irradiated; an acoustical signal which is photoacoustically generated by absorption of each light pulse is detected; the acoustical signal is analyzed with respect to its amplitude; and the time necessary for regaining a predefined amplitude of the acoustical signal after release of occlusion is measured. With this method, specific, accurate and easy monitoring of the degree of hydration of the human body is possible.