title: Use of transthoracic bioimpedance to determine cardiac output in pediatric patients.
abstract: The use of a transthoracic bioimpedance monitor to determine cardiac output was evaluated in critically ill children. The children ranged in age from 10 months to 8 yr and their height and weight ranged from the third to the 97th percentile. Each child had a thermodilution catheter in place to monitor cardiac output. The bioimpedance monitor used in this study, the NCCOM-3, required the input of a constant (L), which was obtained for each individual patient by adjusting the L setting until cardiac output measured by bioimpedance (COBI) was within 10% of cardiac output measured by thermodilution (COTD). This method of determining L was superior to using either measured thoracic length or the manufacturer's guidelines to obtain L and resulted in an excellent correlation between COTD and COBI (r = .94; p less than .05; n = 59). In children less than 125 cm in height, measured thoracic length alone was inadequate to use for L but provided a good approximation of L when multiplied by 1.25. This study suggests that the use of transthoracic bioimpedance to determine cardiac output compares favorably with thermodilution techniques and it is noninvasive.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta 30912.
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Introna
authors.forename: J K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Pruett
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Crumrine
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Cuadrado
mesh_terms: D002302:Cardiac Output; D002307:Cardiography, Impedance; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003422:Critical Care; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D010992:Plethysmography, Impedance; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013815:Thermodilution