A slide-rule for assessment of venous admixture

Determination of venous admixture (physiological shunt, Qva/Qt) requires analysis of both arterial and mixed venous blood. When a pulmonary arterial catheter is not in use, the pulmonary oxygenating capacity may be assessed from arterial blood gas data, the fraction of inspired oxygen (FIO2) and an assumed value of the arterial-mixed venous oxygen content difference. To facilitate this process, a slide-rule based on the "virtual shunt" concept is presented. It permits rapid assessment of Qva/Qt from known values of arterial oxygen tension (PaO2) or saturation (SaO2) and FIO2 and may promote the choice of appropriate FIO2. The limitations of the slide-rule were studied theoretically and its validity was tested by comparing 100 determinations of virtual shunt with the corresponding Qva/Qt values. The slide-rule was found to estimate Qva/Qt more accurately than commonly used oxygenation indices such as the PaO2/FIO2 ratio.