The effects of differential injection sites of cold saline on transpulmonary thermodilution parameter values

AIM To investigate the effects of differential sites for cold saline injection on transpulmonary thermodilution parameter values. METHODS This was a prospective study. Twelve patients were recruited for the following examinations: control condition (injection site at proximal injection end of the Swan-Ganz catheter), proximal end condition (injection site at sheath of the Swan-Ganz catheter), and distal end condition (injection site at PA end of the Swan-Ganz catheter). Sixty measurements were performed for each condition. The cardiac index, global end diastolic volume index (GEDI), and extravascular lung water index for the three different injection sites were recorded from each patient. In addition, the mean transmission time (MTt), downslope time, and area under the curve obtained from PiCCO-VoLEF-Win software were compared among different groups. RESULTS There were no differences in cardiac index and extravascular lung water index values among the three conditions (P>0.05). There were no differences in GEDI between the proximal end condition and control condition (P>0.05), while the GEDI was significantly lower for the distal end condition (493.33±254.65 mL/m(2)) than for the control condition (645.53±234.46 mL/m(2)) (P<0.05) and proximal end condition (717.96±321.63 mL/m(2)) (P<0.01). There were no differences in downslope time and area under the curve among the three conditions (P>0.05). There were no differences in MTt between the proximal end condition and control condition (P>0.05), while the MTt was significantly lower for distal end condition (40.22±16.37 seconds) than for the control condition (42.91±17.93 seconds) (P<0.05) and proximal end condition (47.16±16.64 seconds) (P<0.01). CONCLUSION The differential sites for cold saline injection impacted transpulmonary thermodilution parameter values.