title: Continuous Fick cardiac output compared to thermodilution cardiac output.
abstract: A system has been developed to monitor continuously the components of the oxygen Fick equation: oxygen consumption by a gas exchange analyzer and arteriovenous oxygen difference by pulse and fiberoptic oximetry. A computer-based system was developed which calculates cardiac output and other variables every 20 sec. Continuous Fick (CF) cardiac output was compared to thermodilution (TD) cardiac output in 21 ventilated post-cardiac surgery patients. A total of 237 simultaneous cardiac output measurements had a range between 2 and 11 L/min. The correlation between CF and TD cardiac outputs was r = .86, with an equation of TD cardiac output = 0.92 CF cardiac output + 1.16. There was a significant (p less than .001) difference between the two methods of cardiac output estimation. The CF method was consistently lower than TD; this difference was greater at lower flows. CF cardiac output measurement is practical; it offers distinct advantages in viewing cardiac output together with oxygen demand and oxygen extraction.
mesh_terms: D002302:Cardiac Output; D006801:Humans; D008432:Mathematical Computing; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010101:Oxygen Consumption; D011659:Pulmonary Gas Exchange; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013815:Thermodilution
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen