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Validation of the extravascular lung water by single transpulmonary thermodilution in the clinical setting

Introduction

While it is known that extravascular lung water (EVLW) estimated by transpulmonary single thermodilution correlates closely with gravimetric measurements of lungs in experimental animal models, the correlation in human beings, especially in the clinical setting, is still unclear. The aim of our study was to validate EVLW measured by the PiCCO system in the clinical setting.

Methods

We retrospectively analyzed the data of all 23 cadavers whose EVLW was measured using the single indicator transpulmonary thermodilution system (PiCCO; Pulsion Medical Systems, Germany) at four teaching hospitals from July 2004 to November 2008. We evaluated the relationship between EVLW, the postmortem lung weight and the amount of plural effusion.

Results

Although the amount of the plural effusion was between 10 ml and 1,600 ml, we found very close correlation between pre-mortem transpulmonary measurements of EVLW and postmortem lung weight (Figure 1; n = 23, R = 0.954, R2 = 0.91).

Figure 1
figure 1

EVLW and postmortem lung weight.

Conclusion

Measurement of the EVLW using the PiCCO system is very closely correlated with gravimetric measurement of lung weight, which is independent of the amount of pleural fluid.

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Tagami, T., Kushimoto, S., Masuno, T. et al. Validation of the extravascular lung water by single transpulmonary thermodilution in the clinical setting. Crit Care 13 (Suppl 1), P226 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1186/cc7390

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/cc7390

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