title: Thermodilution cardiac output studies as a cause of prosthetic valve bacterial endocarditis.
abstract: The injectate used for thermodilution cardiac output determinations is a potential source for direct bloodstream contamination, resulting in bacterial endocarditis after cardiac operations. An experiment simulating three techniques for obtaining injectate samples showed one of them to be clearly unacceptable.
mesh_terms: D002302:Cardiac Output; D004340:Drug Contamination; D004697:Endocarditis, Bacterial / Q000209:etiology*; D006350:Heart Valve Prosthesis; D006801:Humans; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000209:etiology*; D013212:Staphylococcus epidermidis / Q000302:isolation & purification; D013815:Thermodilution / Q000009:adverse effects*