PMID: 2500297Jun 1, 1989Paper

Measurement of cardiac output by carbon dioxide rebreathing methods

Clinics in Chest Medicine
G J Heigenhauser, N L Jones

Abstract

Cardiac output may be measured noninvasively by applying the Fick principle to CO2; CO2 output is measured by expired gas analysis and the veno-arterial CO2 content difference is obtained from estimates of PVCO2 and PaCO2. PVCO2 is determined using the lung as a tonometer for the equilibration of CO2; two main methods are available. In the Defares or exponential method, a low concentration of CO2 is initially rebreathed. Complete equilibration is not reached between the lung and rebreathing bag and the PvCO2 is calculated as the asymptote of the exponential rise in PETCO2 during rebreathing and prior to recirculation. Even though several mathematical methods can be used to calculate PvCO2, the most precise is an iterative statistical analysis to obtain the best-fit curve for PETCO2 with time, from which PvCO2 is obtained from PETCO2 at 20 seconds after the start of rebreathing. In the Collier or equilibrium method, a bag having CO2 concentration higher than PvCO2 is rebreathed. If an appropriate initial bag volume CO2 has been selected, equilibration will occur in the lung-bag system, recognized as a plateau in the PCO2 rebreathing record. If a plateau is not obtained, PvCO2 can be estimated by extrapolating the line joining th...Continue Reading

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