Cardiac Output Monitoring in Intensive Care Patients by Radial Artery Pressure Waveform Analysis

We have developed a novel technique for monitoring cardiac output (CO) changes by mathematically analyzing a single peripheral arterial blood pressure (ABP) waveform. In contrast to all previous techniques, our technique analyzes the ABP waveform over time scales greater than a cardiac cycle in which complex wave reflections are attenuated. We have previously validated the technique in swine instrumented with aortic flow probes. We present here an initial evaluation of the technique in 16 patient records of the MIMIC (Multi-parameter Intelligent Monitoring for Intensive Care) database, consisting of 122 simultaneous pairs of radial ABP waveforms and thermodilution CO. We report an overall error in the technique of 18.1% with respect to the error-prone clinical thermodilution measurements. This study promotes thorough future testing of the technique in humans.