Evaluation of New Calibrated Pulse-Wave Analysis (VolumeView(TM)/EV1000(TM)) for Cardiac Output Monitoring Undergoing Living Donor Liver Transplantation

BACKGROUND: Intrapulmonary thermodilution technique using a pulmonary artery catheter is widely used for measuring cardiac output (CO) in patients undergoing liver transplantation. However, its invasiveness and associated complications have led to an interest in less invasive modalities. Thus, we aimed to evaluate whether the new calibrated pulse-wave analysis method monitoring (VolumeView(TM)/EV1000(TM)) is interchangeable with intrapulmonary thermodilution technique. METHODS: Twenty-eight patients undergoing living donor liver transplantation were enrolled in this prospective observational study. COs were recorded automatically by the two devices and compared simultaneously at 10-minute intervals. The agreement of absolute CO values and the tracking ability of CO changes trends were compared. A Bland-Altman analysis with percentage errors and concordance rate for trend analysis using both a 4-quadrant plot and a polar plot were performed on the data. RESULTS: A total of 375 paired datasets from 25 patients were included in analysis. COs measured by intrapulmonary thermodilution ranged from 3.8–13.7 L/min. The mean CO difference between the two techniques was 0.57 L/min, and the 95% limits of agreement were -0.98 L/min to 2.12 L/min with a percentage error of 42.3%. The percentage errors in the dissection, anhepatic, and reperfusion phase were 30.5%, 31.7%, and 27.4%, respectively. The concordance rate between the two techniques was 78.4%. CONCLUSION: The calibrated pulse-wave analysis and intrapulmonary thermodilution failed to show acceptable interchangeability in terms of both estimating CO and tracking CO changes during living donor liver transplantation.