UTILITY AND LIMITS OF ECHO-DOPPLER IN MEASURING OF THE CARDIAC OUTPUT

Determination of cardiac output and its relative variations is of great importance in patients in critical conditions. It is to be noted that while a semi-quantitative determination of the flow-rate was obtained with the first Doppler devices, those of the last generation in which the eco-Doppler system is integrated with the mono or bi-dimensional echo, give qualitative measurement of the stroke volume and cardiac output. Numerous clinical researches have shown that the echo-Doppler methods permits strictly correlated measurement superimposable on and capable of replacing those furnished by standard invasive methods (roller pump, thermodiluition, electromagnetic flowmeter, etc.)