FEASIBILITY OF CONTINUOUS OXYGEN DELIVERY AND CARDIAC-OUTPUT MEASUREMENT BY APPLICATION OF THE FICK PRINCIPLE

Continuous mixed venous oxygen saturation (SVO2) measurements from fib eroptic pulmonary artery catheters, arterial oxygen saturation (Sa(O2) ) measurements from pulse oximetry, and minute-by-minute oxygen consum ption (VO2) measurements from indirect calorimetry can be used for nea r-continuous estimation of cardiac output (Qt) and oxygen delivery (DO 2) by application of the Fick Principle. Assumptions required for calc ulation of blood oxygen contents include constant hemoglobin concentra tion (Hgb) and constant or negligible physically dissolved oxygen. Fir st, the influence of these assumptions on continuous Qt and DO2 determ inations was tested. Unmeasured changes in Hgb resulted in substantial error in calculated Qt, whereas calculated DO2 was minimally affected . Both Qt and DO2 were little altered by errors in Pa-O2 or PVO2. Seco nd, the effects of SVO2, Sa(O2), and VO2 measurement errors on Qt and DO2 calculations under normal and extreme conditions were quantified. Relative errors in SVO2 were increased by a factor of 4.2 in Qt estima tions and by a factor of 3.2 in DO2 measurements under normal conditio ns. These factors increased with increasing SVO2, and thus, Qt and DO2 became increasingly unreliable as oxygen extraction fell. Third, we c ompared continuous measurements of Qt and DO2 with intermittent measur ements made by thermodilution cardiac output and blood sampling, and f ound correlation coefficients of 0.85 for bt and 0.89 for DO2. Fourth, common measurement errors in VO2 and DO2 calculated in this way were found to bias regressions between VO2 and DO2, and this bias could be minimized only if the DO2 range were high and SVO2 were low. With atte ntion paid to these problems, continuously measured dt and Lie, may be usefully applied for the assessment of DO2-dependent VO2 within a sin gle patient.