[Bedside evaluation of hemodynamic and respiratory data with a programmable pocket calculator]

Information obtained from repeated measurements of basic haemodynamic and pulmonary artery catheterization data has become useful for treatment of critically ill patients. In addition, the determination of cardiac output, the systemic, central venous, pulmonary arterial and pulmonary capillary wedge pressures, and blood gas data of arterial and mixed venous sampling allow to calculate derived cardiorespiratory variables. Since manual computation is a time-consuming measure in the daily routine of an intensive care unit and online computer monitoring an expensive one, we developed a program for bedside use in a handheld programmable calculator. This program incorporates the following characteristics: calculation of standard hemodynamic, oxygen transport and perfusion-related variables, temperature correction of blood gas data, and derivation of oxygen saturation and intrapulmonary shunt.