Noninvasive and simple assessment of cardiac output and pulmonary vascular resistance with whole-body impedance cardiography is useful for monitoring patients with pulmonary hypertension.

BACKGROUND Right heart catheterization (RHC) is the gold standard for the diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension (PH) and a useful tool for monitoring PH. However, there are some disadvantages in the regular use of RHC because it is invasive. Noninvasive methods for monitoring hemodynamics are needed to manage patients with PH. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the reliability of noninvasive hemodynamic assessment with whole-body impedance cardiography (Non-Invasive Cardiac System [NICaS]) for PH. METHODS AND RESULTS We investigated 65 consecutive patients undergoing RHC. Two-thirds of them had pulmonary arterial hypertension and one-third had chronic thromboembolic PH; 25% of the patients were receiving medical therapy. Cardiac output (CO) was estimated by NICaS (NI-CO), thermodilution (TD-CO), and the Fick method (Fick-CO). There was a strong correlation between NI-CO and TD-CO (r=0.715, P<0.0001) and Fick-CO (r=0.653, P<0.0001). Noninvasive pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) was estimated using a conventional invasive equation with NI-CO, mean pulmonary arterial pressure was calculated by echocardiographic measurement, and pulmonary capillary wedge pressure was estimated at 10mmHg in all cases. NICaS-derived PVR was very strongly correlated with invasive PVR (TD-PVR: r=0.704, P<0.0001; Fick-PVR: r=0.702, P<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS Noninvasive measurement of CO and PVR using NICaS and echocardiography is a useful tool for the assessment of PH.