Cardiac Output Measurement
Describe the invasive and non-invasive measurement of
blood pressure andcardiac output including calibration, sources of errors and limitationsExplain the derived values from common methods of measurement of cardiac output (i.e. measures of vascular resistance)
Cardiac output measurement can be performed:
- Invasively
- Pulmonary Artery Catheter
- Thermodilution
- Fick Principle
- TOE
- Arterial waveform analysis
- PiCCO
- Vigileo
- Pulmonary Artery Catheter
- Non-invasively
- TTE
- MRI
- Thoracic impedance
Thermodilution
Thermodilution remains the gold standard of cardiac output measurement.
This technique:
- Requires a pulmonary artery catheter
Various different designs exist. For CO measurement, they require:
Method for Intermittent Cardiac Output Measurement by Thermodilution
- A known volume of (typically dextrose) at a known temperature (classically cooled, but this is not required) is injected into the proximal port
- The temperature of blood is measured at the tip
This produces a temperature-time curve. - The area under the curve can be used to calculate cardiac output, as per the modified Stewart-Hamilton Equation:
, where:- = Cardiac output
- = Volume of injectate
- = Temperature of blood
- = Temperature of injectate
- = Density constant
Relates to the specific heat and specific gravity of both injectate and blood. - = Computation constant
Accounts for catheter dead space and heat exchange during injection. - = Area under the change in temperature-time curve
Errors in Thermodilution
- Natural variability
Cardiac output varies up to 10% with changes in intrathoracic pressure during respiration. Therefore:- A mean of 3-5 measurements should be taken
- Measurements should be taken at end-expiration
- Incorrect volume of injectate
- Too much underestimates CO
- Too little overestimates CO
- Warm fluid
The closer the temperature of injectate is to blood, the greater degree of error introduced to the measurement.- Colder injectate is more accurate, but carries the risk of inducing bradyarrhythmias
- Poorly positioned PAC
The PAC must be positioned in West's Zone 3 for blood flow to occur past the tip, and for the measured temperature to be accurate. - Tricuspid regurgitation
Results in retrograde ejection of injectate back past the valve. - Arrhythmia
Fick Principle
Cardiac Output can also be measured using the Fick Principle. This technique:
- Uses the Fick Principle
The flow of blood to an organ is equal to the uptake of a tracer substance divided by the arterio-venous concentration difference.- In this case, the tracer substance is oxygen
- The 'organ' is the whole body
- This produces the equation: , where:
- is Cardiac Output
- is the patients oxygen consumption
Typically estimated as 3.5ml.kg-1 .min-1 - is arterial oxygen content
- is mixed venous oxygen content
- Relies on mixed venous blood sampled from the pulmonary artery, and arterial blood sampled from a peripheral arterial line
References
- Moise, S. F., Sinclair, C. J. and Scott, D. H. T. (2002), Pulmonary artery blood temperature and the measurement of cardiac output by thermodilution. Anaesthesia, 57: 562–566.
- Nishikawa, T. & Dohi, S. Errors in the measurement of cardiac output by thermodilution. Can J Anaesth (1993) 40: 142.