On October 8th 2019 I was able to spend two days in the facilities of the company Artinis in Elst (Holland). With the idea of sharing science the company Artinis offers a course on the introduction and perfection of the Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Technique.

The goal of my staying was to improve the technique of operation and data collection with the devices PortaMon and PortaLite, to practice and solve doubts of the Oxysoft software and especially to see how it could be carried out to make measurements in the water. We had the opportunity to “pack” the vacuum PortaMon, place it on the muscle and measure the oximetry. In my case the maximum interest is to the measure in a submaximum apnoea, therefore, in total immobility.

At this meeting, I happened to meet other researchers, mostly Dutch, Belgian and German but also Americans, from the University of Chicago. The different lines of research with the NIRS are diverse. A remarkable part of the programme was related to the investigation of the cerebral and cognitive stimulation with multichannel devices such as Brite or Oxymon.

Many thanks to the Sales Manager of Artinis, Marco Dat, who ran the training and with whom I had the opportunity to share interesting conversations about the use of NIRS in sports apnoea.

Later I will explain very interesting aspects about the use of the NIRS I learned at that meeting.