Measurement of cardiac output by use of noninvasively measured transient hemodilution curves with photoacoustic technology.

We present the theoretical basis and experimental verification for cardiac output measurements using noninvasively measured hemodilution curves afforded with an indicator dilution technique and the emerging photoacoustic technology. A photoacoustic system noninvasively tracks a transient hemodilution effect induced by a bolus of isotonic saline as an indicator. As a result, a photoacoustic indicator dilution curve is obtained, which allows to estimate cardiac output from the developed algorithm. The experiments with a porcine blood circulatory phantom system demonstrated the feasibility of this technology towards the development of a noninvasive cardiac output measurement system for patient monitoring.