New study suggesting USCOM is replacing the Pulmonary Artery Catheter (PAC) as the new clinical gold standard of cardiac output monitoring!

The PAC has been accepted as the clinical method of measuring cardiac output (CO) despite no prior validation. USCOM and PAC were compared against the (invasive) Flow Probe (FP).  Measurements of CO were taken in conscious sheep implanted with a FP and compared with those from PAC and USCOM.  The sheep were measured both at rest and during intervention with inotropes and vasopressors. 

Results:

Uscom varied from FP by 1% over all the measures while PAC varied by 17%.  USCOM was 6 – 8 times as sensitive as PAC when measuring inotrope.

Conclusion:

PAC demonstrated poor accuracy and sensitivity as a measure of CO.  USCOM provided equivalent measurements to FP across a six fold range of outputs, reliably detecting +/- 5% changes. USCOM is more accurate and more sensitive than Pulmonary Artery Catheter and opens up new areas of clinical application. 

This new publication has also been cited by 2 Australian news articles, per below:

https://www.som.uq.edu.au/news-events/news/practice-changing-cardiology-research.aspx

http://www.uq.edu.au/news/index.html?article=24763

Below an earlier BBC News Article from 2010, also highlighting the benefits:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/nottinghamshire/8525901.stm