Comparison of USCOM and PiCCO Cardiac Output Measurements in Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

Objective: In the management of haemodynamically unstable patients, cardiac output (CO) measurement provides clinicians with important data on organ tissue perfusion. This measurement can be performed by pulse-induced contour cardiac output (PiCCO) using thermodilution method, which is a less invasive method, and ultrasonic cardiac output monitoring (USCOM), which is completely non-invasive. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical relevance of CO and cardiac index measurements obtained by USCOM in patient’s with sepsis and septic shock by comparing them with the PiCCO technique, which has been used as a reference measurement method in recent years. Materials and Methods: In this prospective study, 36 patient’s with sepsis and septic shock ventilated with 8-10 mL/kg tidal volume without respiratory effort were included. Patient’s with arrhythmia, known heart failure or pulmonary embolism were excluded. Results: After averaging the PiCCO and USCOM measurements performed by different clinicians, the heart rate was found to be 3.23 L/min/m2 with PiCCO and 2.24 L/min/m2 with USCOM. When the two results were compared, the difference was statistically significant (p=0.01). Stroke volume variation was 15.80% with PiCCO and 52.89% with USCOM. When the two results were compared, the difference was statistically significant (p=0.01). Conclusion: There was no agreement between USCOM and PiCCO measurements in sepsis patient’s. In our opinion, more studies are needed for USCOM reliability.

Keywords

• picco
• uscom
• cardiac output