[Arterial pressure-based cardiac output monitoring: 1. FloTrac sensor and SVV]

FloTrac is a recently introduced semi-invasive arterial pressure-based cardiac output (APCO) monitoring device. The accuracy of a new device is usually evaluated by Bland-Altman method, which shows graphically the mean value of differences between a new method and the reference method (bias), standard deviation of the differences (precision) and limits of agreement or 2 standard deviations. Critchley et al calculated the percentage errors which are two standard deviations divided by mean cardiac output, and proposed that percentage error should be less than 30% as a reliable new method. Cardiac output was measured by FloTrac (APCO) and pulmonary arterial catheter-based thermodilution method (ICO) during off-pump coronary artery bypass and resection of pheochromocytoma, procedures associated with hemodynamically unstable conditions. As algorithm is renewed in a new version of the device, the accuracy of the device is improved; bias, precision and limits of agreement decreased; correlation coefficient increased, and percentage error was assessed to be around 30%. On the other hand, there was a tendency for increased negative bias as cardiac output increased, implying APCO tends to underestimate ICO in high CO ranges. APCO is less invasive and could rapidly respond to fast changes of hemodynamic state. FloTrac is expected to become a reliable cardiac output monitoring device even under hemodynamically unstable conditions. Further improvement of the algorithm is anticipated.