[Measurement of cardiac output by Doppler echocardiography: clinical validation in pediatric patients after open heart surgery].

We compared the cardiac output obtained by pulsed Doppler echocardiography (COPW) with simultaneous thermodilution measurements (COTD) in 13 children for 33 times after open heart surgery. Good correlation (r = 0.84, slope = 1.15) of cardiac output was obtained when direct measurements of aortic diameter during operation were used in the calculations. Cardiac output was overestimated (r = 0.89, slope = 1.42) when 2 DE measurements of aortic diameter were used. Nineteen measurements of 8 VSD patients revealed good correlation (r = 0.89, slope 0.85) using direct measurement of aortic diameter, whereas 14 measurements of TOF patients showed somewhat overestimation of cardiac output (r = 0.90, slope = 1.31). In serial determinations, percent change change in COPW well correlated with COTD (r = 0.75, slope = 1.08). We conclude that accurate cardiac output can be obtained by pulsed Doppler echocardiography after pediatric cardiac surgery by measuring aortic diameter directly in operation room. Accuracy in percent change in cardiac output proved that COPW is useful especially in hemodynamically unstable patients after pediatric cardiac surgery.