Skip to main content
PMC home page
British Heart Journal logoLink to British Heart Journal
. 1988 Jun;59(6):680–684. doi: 10.1136/hrt.59.6.680

Reproducibility of cardiac output measurement by cross sectional and Doppler echocardiography.

S C Robson 1, A Murray 1, I Peart 1, A Heads 1, S Hunter 1
PMCID: PMC1276875  PMID: 3395526

Abstract

The variability of Doppler echocardiographic estimation of cardiac output at the aortic orifice was investigated in eight healthy subjects. Cross sectional echocardiograms of the aortic orifice and aortic Doppler velocities were recorded and measured by four echocardiographers. Between subject variability was significantly larger than within subject variability for all variables. Variability owing to different echocardiographers and different measurement times was small compared with total variability. Coefficients of variation for aortic annular diameter, aortic velocity integral, and heart rate were 4.1%, 6.4%, and 5.0% respectively. The coefficient of variation for cardiac output was 8.8% and the 95% confidence interval for measurement of cardiac output by the Doppler method was 4.45 to 6.35 l/min. One echocardiographer reanalysed all the recordings and the results showed that recording the echocardiograms introduces a significantly larger source of error than measuring them. Thus serial measurements of cardiac output by the Doppler method can be performed with acceptable reproducibility; this indicates that the technique can be accurately applied in clinical practice.

Full text

PDF
680

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Chandraratna P. A., Nanna M., McKay C., Nimalasuriya A., Swinney R., Elkayam U., Rahimtoola S. H. Determination of cardiac output by transcutaneous continuous-wave ultrasonic Doppler computer. Am J Cardiol. 1984 Jan 1;53(1):234–237. doi: 10.1016/0002-9149(84)90718-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Fraser C. B., Light L. H., Shinebourne E. A., Buchthal A., Healy M. J., Beardshaw J. A. Transcutaneous aortovelography: reproducibility in adults and children. Eur J Cardiol. 1976 Jun;4(2):181–189. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. GREENFIELD J. C., Jr, PATEL D. J. Relation between pressure and diameter in the ascending aorta of man. Circ Res. 1962 May;10:778–781. doi: 10.1161/01.res.10.5.778. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Gardin J. M., Dabestani A., Matin K., Allfie A., Russell D., Henry W. L. Reproducibility of Doppler aortic blood flow measurements: studies on intraobserver, interobserver and day-to-day variability in normal subjects. Am J Cardiol. 1984 Nov 1;54(8):1092–1098. doi: 10.1016/s0002-9149(84)80150-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Gardin J. M., Tobis J. M., Dabestani A., Smith C., Elkayam U., Castleman E., White D., Allfie A., Henry W. L. Superiority of two-dimensional measurement of aortic vessel diameter in Doppler echocardiographic estimates of left ventricular stroke volume. J Am Coll Cardiol. 1985 Jul;6(1):66–74. doi: 10.1016/s0735-1097(85)80255-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Huntsman L. L., Stewart D. K., Barnes S. R., Franklin S. B., Colocousis J. S., Hessel E. A. Noninvasive Doppler determination of cardiac output in man. Clinical validation. Circulation. 1983 Mar;67(3):593–602. doi: 10.1161/01.cir.67.3.593. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Ihlen H., Amlie J. P., Dale J., Forfang K., Nitter-Hauge S., Otterstad J. E., Simonsen S., Myhre E. Determination of cardiac output by Doppler echocardiography. Br Heart J. 1984 Jan;51(1):54–60. doi: 10.1136/hrt.51.1.54. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Ihlen H., Endresen K., Myreng Y., Myhre E. Reproducibility of cardiac stroke volume estimated by Doppler echocardiography. Am J Cardiol. 1987 Apr 15;59(9):975–978. doi: 10.1016/0002-9149(87)91137-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Kupari M. Reproducibility of M-mode echocardiographic assessment of left ventricular function. Significance of the temporal range of measurements. Eur Heart J. 1984 May;5(5):412–418. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.eurheartj.a061675. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Lewis J. F., Kuo L. C., Nelson J. G., Limacher M. C., Quinones M. A. Pulsed Doppler echocardiographic determination of stroke volume and cardiac output: clinical validation of two new methods using the apical window. Circulation. 1984 Sep;70(3):425–431. doi: 10.1161/01.cir.70.3.425. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. McLennan F. M., Haites N. E., Mackenzie J. D., Daniel M. K., Rawles J. M. Reproducibility of linear cardiac output measurement by Doppler ultrasound alone. Br Heart J. 1986 Jan;55(1):25–31. doi: 10.1136/hrt.55.1.25. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Meijboom E. J., Rijsterborgh H., Bot H., De Boo J. A., Roelandt J. R., Bom N. Limits of reproducibility of blood flow measurements by Doppler echocardiography. Am J Cardiol. 1987 Jan 1;59(1):133–137. doi: 10.1016/s0002-9149(87)80085-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Nishimura R. A., Callahan M. J., Schaff H. V., Ilstrup D. M., Miller F. A., Tajik A. J. Noninvasive measurement of cardiac output by continuous-wave Doppler echocardiography: initial experience and review of the literature. Mayo Clin Proc. 1984 Jul;59(7):484–489. doi: 10.1016/s0025-6196(12)60438-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Rose J. S., Nanna M., Rahimtoola S. H., Elkayam U., McKay C., Chandraratna P. A. Accuracy of determination of changes in cardiac output by transcutaneous continuous-wave Doppler computer. Am J Cardiol. 1984 Nov 1;54(8):1099–1101. doi: 10.1016/s0002-9149(84)80151-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Schuster A. H., Nanda N. C. Doppler echocardiographic measurement of cardiac output: comparison with a non-golden standard. Am J Cardiol. 1984 Jan 1;53(1):257–259. doi: 10.1016/0002-9149(84)90723-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Stetz C. W., Miller R. G., Kelly G. E., Raffin T. A. Reliability of the thermodilution method in the determination of cardiac output in clinical practice. Am Rev Respir Dis. 1982 Dec;126(6):1001–1004. doi: 10.1164/arrd.1982.126.6.1001. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Vandenbogaerde J. F., Scheldewaert R. G., Rijckaert D. L., Clement D. L., Colardyn F. A. Comparison between ultrasonic and thermodilution cardiac output measurements in intensive care patients. Crit Care Med. 1986 Apr;14(4):294–297. doi: 10.1097/00003246-198604000-00010. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from British Heart Journal are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES