THE physiologic changes of pregnancy, including an initial gradual increase in cardiac output, followed by the development of increasing aortocaval compression in the third trimester, as well as comorbidities such as preeclampsia, have generated considerable research into maternal hemodynamics. The use of the pulmonary artery catheter allowed a better understanding of the physiology of the heal...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Echocardiography has become more widely available to noncardiologists because of the technological advances in smaller, multipurpose ultrasound units with basic cardiac capabilities. In this review, we discuss the type of clinical information a trained intensivist can hope to obtain from bedside echocardiography and suggest the ways in which this complements traditional hemody...

Recent interest in functional hemodynamic monitoring for the bedside assessment of cardiovascular insufficiency has heightened. Functional hemodynamic monitoring is the assessment of the dynamic interactions of hemodynamic variables in response to a defined perturbation. Accordingly, fluid responsiveness can be predicted in a quantities fashion by measuring as arterial pulse pressure variation ...

The rate adaptive sensors applied to cardiac pacing should respond as promptly as the normal sinus node with an highly specific and sensitive detection of the need of increasing heart rate. Sensors operating alone may not provide optimal heart responsiveness: central venous pH sensing, variations in the oxygen content of mixed venous blood, QT interval, breathing rate and pulmonary minute venti...

Objective: Few studies are available on the hemodynamic changes acutely determined by Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) in ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) patients, probably for the difficult evaluation of hemodynamic variables in this acute setting. Therefore, the paper is to evaluate the variations of several hemodynamic parameters determined by PCI using PRAM (Press...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW To discuss the pathophysiological rationale of advanced hemodynamic monitoring in the critically ill and also to highlight the importance of a multimodal, individualized approach. RECENT FINDINGS There are several clinical studies and animal experiments evaluating, which hemodynamic endpoint should be the best target during fluid management. Recent systematic reviews and met...

BACKGROUND The assessment of hemodynamic status is a crucial task in the initial evaluation of trauma patients. However, blood pressure and heart rate are often misleading, as multiple variables may impact these conventional parameters. More reliable methods such as pulmonary artery thermodilution for cardiac output measuring would be necessary, but its applicability in the Emergency Department...

c o ntinued on page 4 Noninvasive Hemodynamic Monitoring Facilitates Organ Recovery E d i t o r’s Note: This article is based on an interview with Cynthia Willis, Cert i f i e d P ro c u rement Transplant Coord i n a t o r, LifeShare of the Carolinas in Charlotte, NC, and input from William Miles, MD, at Carolinas Medical Center, and Michael Bowdish, MD, cardiothoracic transplant surgeon at the...

Shannon Womble, Marlene Wallace, and Jerry McCartney are staff nurses in the surgical intensive care unit of the 59th Medical Wing at Lackland AFB. with various phases of pregnancy is important in the interpretation of patients’ hemodynamic profiles and clinical findings. This section provides an overview of the expected hemodynamic changes that occur during pregnancy, at the time of delivery, ...

Background During cardiovascular interventions it is critical to have high-fidelity hemodynamic recordings of physiologic signals for patient safety and procedure guidance. MRI compatible monitoring systems are low-fidelity and not suitable for cardiovascular interventions. We present an MRI compatible hemodynamic recording system designed for MRI guided cardiovascular interventions. It is capa...