Clinical evaluation of a new fiberoptic catheter oximeter during cardiac surgery.

A new pulmonary arterial catheter (Opticath), containing the standard pulmonary artery catheter features plus two fiberoptic filaments to permit continuous measurement of oxygen saturation (SVO2) by a companion oximeter, was studied in 13 patients undergoing elective coronary bypass surgery. The study was designed to evaluate the accuracy of Opticath SVO2 measurements, to determine the incidence of catheter-related problems, and to correlate changes in SVO2 with hemodynamic changes. A good correlation was found between the SVO2 determined by the Opticath and that measured by American Optical and Radiometer Oximeters (r = 0.92 and 0.89 respectively; p less than 0.0001). There was a significant correlation between increases or decreases in values of SVO2 greater than or equal to 5% and corresponding changes in cardiac index, stroke index, and left ventricular stroke work index (p less than 0.001), and an 86% probability that SVO2 decrease greater than or equal to 5% reflected a significant decline in cardiac index.