CONTINUOUS, LESS INVASIVE, HEMODYNAMIC MONITORING IN INTENSIVE-CARE AFTER CARDIAC-SURGERY

A pulse-contour-based method for continuous measurement of cardiac out put (CO) and systemic vascular resistance (SVR) was tested and arteria l thermodilution, used for calibration, was compared to pulmonary arte ry thermodilution. In 30 patients CO and SVR were measured by pulse co ntour analysis (COpc, SVRpc) 270 times in 24 h and compared to arteria l (COart, SVRart) and pulmonary arterial (COpa, SVRpa) thermodilution measurements. The mean difference between COpa and COart was 0.26 L/mi n (3.6%) with a standard deviation (SD) of 0.7 L/min, the correlation coefficient was 0.96, and the coefficient of variation was 5.0% and 5. 9% respectively. COpc did differ from COpa by 0.11 L/min (1.5%, SD = 0 .6 L/min) and from COart by 0.15 L/min (2.1 %, SD = 0.7 L/min). Correl ation of COpc with COpa was 0.91, correlation of COpc with COart was 0 .90. SVRpc did correlate with SVRpa, a coefficient of 0.94, and with S VRart, a coefficient of 0.92. Mean COpc and SVRpc did not differ signi ficantly from COpa or COart and SVRpa or SVRart during the 24 h study period. It is concluded that COart correlates well with COpa and can b e used to calibrate COpc. COpc and SVRpc agree with thermodilution-bas ed CO and SVR without recalibration for 24 hours.