The precision of PiCCO® measurements in hypothermic post-cardiac arrest patients

The aim of the present study was to determine the precision of the PiCCO® system for post-cardiac arrest patients who underwent therapeutic hypothermia. The precision of the measurements for cardiac output, global end-diastolic volume, extravascular lung water and the pulmonary vascular permeability index was assessed using the least significant change; this was regarded as precise when less than 15%. A total of 462 measurement sets were prospectively performed on 88 patients following successful resuscitation after cardiac arrest. Using the mean value of three injections for a measurement, the least significant change for the cardiac output, global end-diastolic volume, extravascular lung water and pulmonary vascular permeability index measurements were found to be 7.8%, 8.5%, 7.8% and 12.1%, respectively. No significant differences between hypothermia (n = 150) and non-hypothermia (n = 312) were found. The PiCCO-derived variables were found to be precise for post-cardiac arrest patients even under conditions of varying body temperature.