Efficacy of using tidal volume challenge to improve the reliability of pulse pressure variation reduced in low tidal volume ventilated critically ill patients with decreased respiratory system compliance

BACKGROUND: The prediction accuracy of pulse pressure variation (PPV) for fluid responsiveness was proposed to be unreliable in low tidal volume (Vt) ventilation. It was suggested that changes in PPV obtained by transiently increasing Vt to 8 ml/kg accurately predicted fluid responsiveness even in subjects receiving low Vt. We assessed whether the changes in PPV induced by a Vt challenge predicted fluid responsiveness in our critically ill subjects ventilated with low Vt 6 ml/kg. METHODS: This study is a prospective single-center study. PPV and other parameters were measured at a Vt of 6 mL/kg, 8 mL/kg, and after volume expansion. The prediction accuracy of PPV and other parameters for fluid responsiveness before and after tidal volume challenge was also analyzed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. RESULTS: Thirty-one of the 76 subjects enrolled in the study were responders (41%). Respiratory system compliance of all subjects decreased significantly (26 ± 4.3). The PPV values were significantly higher in the responder group than the non-responder group before (8.8 ± 2.7 vs 6.8 ± 3.1) or after (13.0 ± 1.7 vs 8.5 ± 3.0) Vt challenge. In the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis, PPV(6) showed unsatisfactory predictive capability with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.69 (95%CI, 0.57–0.79, p = 0.002) at a Vt of 6 mL/kg. PPV(8) andΔPPV(6–8) showed good predictive capability with an AUC of 0.90 (95% CI, 0.81–0.96, p < 0.001) and 0.90 (95% CI, 0.80–0.95, P < 0.001) respectively. The corresponding cutoff values were 11% for PPV(8) and 2% for ΔPPV(6–8). CONCLUSIONS: PPV shows a poor operative performance as a predictor of fluid responsiveness in critically ill subjects ventilated with a tidal volume of 6 mL/ kg. Vt challenge could improve the predictive accuracy of PPV to a good but not excellent extent when respiratory system compliance decreased significantly. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12871-022-01676-8.