Correlation between Cardiac Output Measured by the Femoral Arterial Thermodilution Technique Pulmonary Arterial and that Measured by Contour Pulse Analysis in a paediatric animal model

Abstract

To evaluate the correlation between two methods for the determination of cardiac output: the femoral arterial thermodilution technique (FATD) and the arterial pulse contour analysis (PCCO) using the PiCCO catheter. We performed a prospective animal study using 51 immature Maryland pigs weighing 9 to 16 kg. A 4- or 5-Fr arterial PiCCO catheter was introduced into the femoral artery. In each animal, we made measurements of cardiac output at 30-minute intervals by femoral arterial thermodilution for a total of 209 measurements. We registered the previous PCCO and compared with the mean of two measures of FATD cardiac output. Mean FATD was 1.73 +/- 0.60 L/min and mean PCCO was 1.78 +/- 0.70 L/min (no significant difference). The mean difference (bias) of differences (limits of agreement) was 0.04. The correlation founded between the two methods was 0.786 (95% confidence interval, 0.71-0.83). Femoral arterial thermodilution cardiac output measurements correlates well with pulse contour analysis cardiac output in this paediatric animal model.