A new technique known as tissue dye densitometry (TDD) has been developed to simultaneously measure cerebral blood volume (CBV) and total circulating blood volume (TCV) using near infrared (NIR) spatially resolved spectroscopy (SRS) and the injection of indocyanine green (ICG). Using a medical NIR spectrometer with SRS capability (NIRO-300, Hamamatsu KK), a new parameter is calculated known as the ICG Hb index (IHI), which represents the ratio of ICG concentration to Hb concentration in tissue. Acting as a tracer, ICG is cleared by the liver over 15 min, providing a change of tracer concentration (⌬C ICG ,tis), which allows the calculation of the total Hb concentration in tissue (tcHb) using the equation: tcHb tis ( molar) ϭ ⌬C ICG,tis / ⌬IHI. The CBV can subsequently be calculated from tcHb tis given the absolute Hb concentration in blood (g/dL), from which the ICG concentration in blood (⌬C ICG,bl ) is obtained. By backextrapolating the ⌬C ICG,bl curve to the peak time, the initial ICG concentration in tissue blood (C 0 ICG,bl ) can be found and TCV can then be calculated. The TCV of 17 neonates were measured using the TDD technique and for comparison using the previously reported fetal Hb dilution technique (FHD Achieving a stable circulation in the first hours of life is fundamental to the provision of successful neonatal intensive care. Many clinical studies describe the administration of boluses of fluid to expand the total circulating volume (TCV) in response to clinical signs of poor skin perfusion, hypotension or acidosis and yet studies both in adults and the newborn show the prediction of hypovolemia by clinical assessment to be poor (1, 2). The availability of a simple cotside method to estimate TCV that could be used shortly after birth would be a useful tool both for the neonatal clinician and the researcher. Methods used previously involving the injection of autologous red cells labeled with biotin (3) or repeated blood sampling following injection of a marker such as indocyanine green (4)