Agreement between the Multi-Beat Analysis algorithm for cardiac output estimation and trans-thoracic 2D echocardiography in the ICU.

Abstract

Objective: Cardiac output (CO) and stroke volume (SV) monitoring are cornerstones of hemodynamic 
management in patients at risk of shock. The multi-beat analysis (MBA) method provides continuous 
estimates of CO and SV by analysis of a patient’s arterial blood pressure waveform. In this study we 
assessed the agreement of CO and SV between 2D echocardiography (CO-ECHO and SV-ECHO) and the 
multi-beat analysis (MBA) method via the Argos monitor (CO-MON and SV-MON). 2 D echo is used in 
this study for comparison, as there are several complications such as pneumothorax, infection, bleeding 
etc associated with the gold standard, i.e. pulmonary artery catheterization, as it is a highly invasive 
procedure. There are several existing studies proving that data obtained from 2 D echo is as accurate as 
that obtained from PAC, and as this is a routine investigation done in the ICU setting, 2 D echo was 
chosen to assess the accuracy of MBA.