Doppler Echocardiographic Measurement of Cardiac Output

ABSTRACT

A noninvasive method for assessing cardiac output was evaluated by comparing it with thermodilution determinations in 25 patients who admitted to Pusan national university hospital from March, 1985 to December, 1986. This method used M-mode & two dimensional echocardiography to measure the internal diameter of aortic valve anulus & pulmonary valve anulus and pulsed doppler echocardiography to obtain aortic & pulmonary blood velocity. Good correlations were observed between thermodilution and doppler echocardiographic measurements of cardiac output from aortic flow (r=0.98, p<0.05) & pulmonary flow (r=0.86, p<0.05). Linear regression analysis yielded y=0.91x0.14 for aortic flow and y=0.77x0.84 for pulmonary flow. These results indicate that accurate cardiac output can be measured by noninvasive & simple doppler echocardiography.