A computer program for the on-line computation of cardiac output from thermodilution curves

An accurate, rapid calculation of Cardiac Output is of great importance during the treatment of critically ill patients. This paper describes a complete, self-contained mini-computer system, based on a Data General NOVA 1220 which can accurately sample data and compute the results in about 30 sec. The system uses the thermodilution method with a Swan-Ganz catheter to collect data and a weighted least-squares technique to compute the results.