Decreased cardiac output diagnosis: clinical validation in post-operative heart surgery patients

Abstract

Analyzing the association between defining characteristics (DC) of decreased cardiac output (DCO) identified by non-invasive methods and the cardiac index estimated by thermodilution. Cardiac index <=2,5l/m/m2 was assumed as gold standard for DCO. Thirty-two DC of DCO were assessed in 49 adult postoperative heart surgery patients immediately before the cardiac index estimation. Sample age ranged from 29 to 82 year, and 29 were female. Two DC were associated to DCO ((alfa)< .05): decreased peripheral pulse (p=.002) and decreased peripheral perfusion (p=.001). Statistical tests showed there was not influence of vasoactive drugs on DC. Increasing sample size will make possible to apply multivariate analyzes in order to better understand the importance of those DC for DCO assessment.