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Pulmonary Artery Catheterization

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Monitoring Technologies in Acute Care Environments

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Abstract

Pulmonary artery catheterization has been available as a clinical tool since 1964 and quickly became the gold standard for hemodynamic monitoring of critically ill patients. The pulmonary artery catheter allows simultaneous monitoring of continuously mixed venous O2 saturation (SvO2), cardiac output (CO), right atrial pressure (Pra), pulmonary arterial pressure (Ppa), right ventricular ejection fraction (RVef), and, by mathematical derivation, right ventricular end-diastolic volume (EDV) and, by intermittent distal balloon occlusion, pulmonary artery occlusion pressure (Ppao). No other cardiovascular monitoring device shares this pluripotential presence. While there is no debate about the measurements a pulmonary artery catheter can offer, there is controversy surrounding the benefits of this device. Nonetheless, it is clearly a useful hemodynamic monitoring tool in selected patients. However, the decision to place this invasive device must be based on the specific information sought.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by the NIH grants HL67181 and HL073198.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 605/606 Scaife Hall, 3550 Terrace Street, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Olufunmilayo Ogundele MD & Michael R. Pinsky MD CM, Dr hc, FCCP, MCCM

  2. Department of Acute and Tertiary Care, University of Pittsburgh, 3500 Victoria Street, Victoria Building, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Eliezer Bose RN, CCRN, BE

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  1. Olufunmilayo Ogundele MD
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  2. Eliezer Bose RN, CCRN, BE
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  3. Michael R. Pinsky MD CM, Dr hc, FCCP, MCCM
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Correspondence to Michael R. Pinsky MD CM, Dr hc, FCCP, MCCM .

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  1. Departments of Anesthesiology, Surgery, and Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

    Jesse M. Ehrenfeld

  2. Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Care, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, USA

    Maxime Cannesson

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Ogundele, O., Bose, E., Pinsky, M.R. (2014). Pulmonary Artery Catheterization. In: Ehrenfeld, J., Cannesson, M. (eds) Monitoring Technologies in Acute Care Environments. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8557-5_8

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