Clinical evaluation of a noninvasive method to measure cardiac output

Noninvasive evaluation of cardiac output based on various biosignals

A convenient and reliable enough method of cardiac output monitoring is still of interest. The following article presents a comparison of selected methods of noninvasive evaluation of this parameter. It considers the analysis of signals measured from the thorax (blood impedance change) and from distal locations like signals from a photopletysmographic sensor or blood pressure from a limb. All o...

Noninvasive Doppler determination of cardiac output in man. Clinical validation.

A noninvasive technique for assessing cardiac output (CO) was evaluated by comparing it with thermodilution determinations in patients in the intensive care unit. The new method uses pulsed ultrasound to measure aortic diameter and continuous-wave Doppler ultrasound to obtain aortic blood velocity. An initial study evaluating just the velocity measurement showed that changes of the Doppler inde...

Why measure cardiac output?

Although cardiac output is a primary determinant of global O2 transport there are no absolute values that reflect circulatory adequacy, though very low values are of negative prognostic use. There is no agreement as to what constitutes a clinically relevant change in cardiac output. A recent clinical trial suggests that early goal-directed therapy aimed at increasing cardiac output improves sur...

Using the lungs to measure cardiac output.

Esophageal Doppler: noninvasive cardiac output monitor.

In this article we describe the esophageal Doppler, a noninvasive, instantaneous cardiac output monitor. Its reliability has been demonstrated to be comparable to that of other current techniques used in the clinical arena to measure cardiac output. It helps guiding intravascular fluid resuscitation by quantifying the increase in flow in response to fluid challenges and by indicating the platea...