Non-invasive measurement of cardiac output in obese children and adolescents: comparison of electrical cardiometry and transthoracic Doppler echocardiography.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the reliability and accuracy of electrical cardiometry (EC) for the noninvasive determination of cardiac output (CO) in obese children and adolescents. We compared these results with those obtained by transthoracic echocardiography. Sixty-four participants underwent simultaneous measurement of CO. Cardiac output was measured by EC using the ICON(®) device. Simultaneously CO was determined by using transthoracic Doppler echocardiography from parasternal long-axis and apical view. The median age was 12.52 years (range 7.9-17.6 years) and 36 (56 %) were female. A strongly significant correlation was found between the COEC and COEcho measurements (p < 0.0001, r = 0.91). Significant correlations were also found between CO and age (r = 0.37, p = 0.002), weight (r = 0.57, p < 0.0001), height (0.60, p < 0.0001) and BMI (r = 0.42, p = 0.001). The mean difference between the two methods (COEC - COEcho) was 0.015 l min(-1). According to the Bland and Altman method, the upper and lower limits of agreement, defined as mean difference ±2 SD, were +1.21 and -0.91 l min(-1), respectively. Compared to the transthoracic Doppler echocardiography, Electrical Cardiometry provides accurate and reliable CO measurements in obese children and adolescents.