COMPUTER-AIDED MONITOR DATA-PROCESSING (CAMP)

A computer aided monitor-data processing system (CAMP-System) was deve loped in order to get a consistent and comprehensive database which ca n very precisely reflect intra-operative haemodynamic courses. The goa l of the present study was to introduce a new method to scan and to ga uge haemodynamic courses and to demonstrate its superiority over the t raditional way oi data processing based on a handwritten anaesthesia p rotocol. Methods. The computerized system was applied to a study which was designed to investigate the influence of ketanserin (K) vs. urapi dil (U) on haemodynamic stability during cardiac operations. Twenty ma le patients scheduled for myocardial revascularization received either 20 mg K or 30 mg U. Heart rate, central venous, arteria! and pulmonar y artery pressures were measured and on-line recorded every 20 seconds by the computer record system. In the handwritten protocol these vari ables were registered at eight pre-defined time points. Computerized d ata processing (including artifact depletion and data condensation) wa s compared to the results evaluated from the handwritten protocol. Res ults. While the only significant differences in the handwritten protoc ol were slightly higher values of pulmonary artery pressures in group K, the computer analysis revealed a number of further differences. Hig her maximum and a less stable time course of HR in group K in the pre- bypass phase and lower mean and standard deviation of MAP during cardi opulmonary bypass. Conclusion. Computerized data processing including automatic artifact suppression and data condensation was able to revea l differences in the course of haemodynamic variables that cannot be d etected in a conventional handwritten protocol.