title: Allometric determination of the distance from the central venous pressure port to wedge position of balloon-tip catheters in pediatric patients.
abstract: Position of the CVP port on a flow-directed balloon-tip pulmonary arterial catheter affects the accuracy of both thermodilution cardiac output determinations and CVP measurements. Systemic allometry (the study of the growth of a part in relation to the total organism) has been used to determine an easily measured independent variable that would predict this position. Sixty-one pediatric patients (aged 0 to 165 months) were studied either at autopsy or at the time of cardiac catheterization. The distance from the central venous port to the wedge position was best predicted by nonlinear manipulation of age.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000375:Aging; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011651:Pulmonary Artery / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000254:growth & development