PULSE CONTOUR CARDIAC-OUTPUT IN SURGICAL INTENSIVE-CARE UNIT PATIENTS

Study Objective: To evaluate the ability of arterial waveform contour analysis to measure cardiac output (CO) continuously in postoperative critically ill patients. Design: Thermodilution CO (TDCO) measurements were compared with simultaneous pulse contour CO (PCCO) measurements. Setting: University hospital surgical intensive care unit. Patients: 29 critically ill surgical patients with indwelling systemic arterial and pulmonary artery catheters. Measurements and Main Results: TDCO me asurements were compared with PCCO at 1- to and-hour intervals. Mean T DCO was 5.75 +/- 1.79 L/min, and mean PCCO was 5.76 +/- 1.83 Limin. An alysis of the difference between TDCO and PCCO showed a bias of 0.01 /- 0.5 L/min. Comparison of the difference between pairs of sequential TDCO measurements and the initial TDCO and subsequent PCCO measuremen ts resulted in a correlation coefficient of 0.64. Conclusions: The PCC O method appears to be able to estimate changes in CO under the condit ions tested, in which PCCO was recalibrated after each TDCO measuremen t. However, limitations of this method in the immediate postoperative period following aortic aneurysm surgery were identified.