Non Invasive Measurement of Cardiac Index by Impedance Cardiography

Pulmonary Hypertension

Pulmonary hypertension, Cardiac index, impedance cardiography

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is defined as a pulmonary arterial mean pressure (meanPAP) ≥ 25 mmHg in the right heart catheterization. There are different forms of PH defined in the classification of Dana Point 2008. PH is diagnosed with right heart catheterization but there are other non invasive methods which can be used for screening like echocardiography, stress echocardiography and cardio pulmonary exercise testing. For prognosis of PH patients the limitation of the pulmonary circulation is very important. Therefore the cardiac index (CI) is a good parameter for the right ventricular function. The gold standard for CI measures is the thermodilution, an invasive method performed during right heart catheterization.

In this study the investigators want to evaluate the impedance cardiography (ICG) as a non invasive method for CI measurement. An alternating current of max 400µA and 45 kHz is conducted through the body. The way of the smallest resistance is the blood in the aorta. The impedance changes with the pulsatile blood flow. Out of the Impedance change there can be calculated the CI.

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