Abstract

Measurement of cardiac output by thermodiiution method is easy to perform and can be repeated at very short intervals and offers a number of theoretical and practical advantages. The purpose of this paper is to reevaluate the accuracy and reproducibility of the thermodilution cardiac output by comparing the results with those obtained by the direct Fick technique. From January through April, 198I (4 months), 26 simultaneous cardiac output measurements were made using thermodilution and dlreck Fick methods in 12 patients in the intensive care unit of Severance Hospital following open heart surgery. The average age of the patients was 34.8