Test-Retest Reliability of Non-Invasive Cardiac Output Measurement during Exercise in Healthy Volunteers in Daily Clinical Routine

BACKGROUND: Thoracic bioreactance (TB), a noninvasive method for the measurement of cardiac output (CO), shows good test-retest reliability in healthy adults examined under research and resting conditions. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we evaluate the test-retest reliability of CO and cardiac power (CPO) output assessment during exercise assessed by TB in healthy adults under routine clinical conditions. METHODS: 25 test persons performed a symptom-limited graded cycling test in an outpatient office on two different days separated by one week. Cardiorespiratory (power output, VO(2peak)) and hemodynamic parameters (heart rate, stroke volume, CO, mean arterial pressure, CPO) were measured at rest and continuously under exercise using a spiroergometric system and bioreactance cardiograph (NICOM, Cheetah Medical). RESULTS: After 8 participants were excluded due to measurement errors (outliers), there was no systematic bias in all parameters under all conditions (effect size: 0.2-0.6). We found that all noninvasively measured CO showed acceptable test-retest-reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient: 0.59-0.98; typical error: 0.3-1.8). Moreover, peak CPO showed better reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient: 0.80-0.85; effect size: 0.9-1.1) then the TB CO, thanks only to the superior reliability of MAP (intraclass correlation coefficient: 0.59-0.98; effect size: 0.3-1.8). CONCLUSION: Our findings preclude the clinical use of TB in healthy subject population when outliers are not identified.