Validity and reliability of cardiac output by arterial thermodilution and arterial pulse contour analysis compared with pulmonary artery thermodilution in intensive care unit.

Cardiac output measurement has a significat role in the critical care setting. The standard of measurement currently is via pulmonary arterial catheter but it has some technical difficulties and serious complications. The authors performed a new method of measurement that used a catheter in a femoral artery. The results of both methods performed simultaneously in 10 surgical intensive care patients every 2 hours for 24 hours were compared. There was high correlation between the two methods, r = 0.97. The average difference of the cardiac output values was 0.46 l/min with standard deviation 0.56 l/min.