title: [Variability in interventions with pulmonary artery catheter data: Brazilian experience].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Use of Pulmonary Artery Catheter (PAC) is still a debatable issue, mainly due to questions raised about its security and efficacy. This study reproduced in a sample of Brazilian physicians, another one conducted amidst American doctors, in which was pointed out the heterogeneity of clinical decisions guided by data obtained from PAC.
  
  
  METHODS
  During the Brazilian Congress of Intensive Care Medicine (Curitiba 2004), doctors were asked to answer a survey form with three vignettes. Each of them contained PAC data and one half of the surveys contained echocardiographic information. Every doctor was asked to select one of six interventions for each vignette. A homogeneous answer was considered when it was selected by at least 80% of the respondents.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two hundred and thirty seven doctors answered the questionnaires. They selected completely different therapeutic interventions in all three vignettes and none of the interventions achieved more than 80% agreement. Variability persisted with the choices guided by echocardiography.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As in the original study, we observed total heterogeneity of therapeutic interventions guided by CAP and echocardiography. These results could be caused by lack of knowledge about basic pathophysiologic concepts and maybe we had to improve its teaching at the medical school benches.
authors.affiliation: UTI, Hospital de Emergência e Trauma Senador Humberto Lucena.
authors.forename: Ciro Leite
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Mendes
authors.affiliation: Serviço de Terapia Intensiva, Hospital do Servidor Público Estadual Francisco Morato de Oliveira, São Paulo, SP.
authors.forename: Ederlon
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rezende
authors.affiliation: UTI, Hospital São Lucas, PUC.
authors.forename: Fernando Suparregui
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Dias
authors.affiliation: UTI, Hospital de Clínicas da Universidade do Paraná.
authors.forename: Alvaro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Réa-Neto