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The validity of trans-esophageal Doppler ultrasonography as a measure of cardiac output in critically ill adults

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Abstract

Objective

To determine the validity of the esophageal Doppler monitor (EDM) and echo-esophageal Doppler (Echo-ED) in measuring cardiac output in the critically ill.

Design

Systematic search of relevant international literature and data synthesis.

Search strategy

Literature search (1989–2003) using Ovid interface to Medline, Embase and Cochrane databases aimed at finding studies comparing EDM or Echo-ED cardiac output with that derived from simultaneous pulmonary artery thermodilution (PACTD) with Bland Altman measures of validity.

Patients

Critically ill adults in operating departments or intensive care units.

Data synthesis

Summary validity measures synthesized from Bland Altman analyses included pooled median bias and the median percentage of clinical agreement (PCA) derived from the limits of agreement.

Main results

Eleven validation papers for EDM (21 studies) involving 314 patients and 2,400 paired measurements. The pooled median bias for PACTD versus EDM was 0.19 l/min (range −0.69 to 2.00 l/min) for cardiac output (16 studies), and 0.6% (range 0–2.3%) for changes in cardiac output (5 studies). The pooled median percentage of clinical agreement for PACTD versus EDM was 52% (interquartile range 42–69%) for cardiac output and 86% (interquartile range 55–93%) for changes in cardiac output. These differences in PCA were significant (p=0.03 Mann-Whitney) for bolus PACTD as the clinical “gold standard”. We found an insufficient number of studies (2 papers) to assess the validity of Echo-ED.

Conclusions

The esophageal Doppler monitor has high validity (no bias and high clinical agreement with pulmonary artery thermodilution) for monitoring changes in cardiac output.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Injury, Repair and Rehabilitation Research Group, Hope Hospital , University of Manchester, Stott Lane, Greater Manchester, M6 8HD, UK

    Paul M. Dark

  2. Department of Medicine and Wolfson Institute of Biomedical Research, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

    Mervyn Singer

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  1. Paul M. Dark
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  2. Mervyn Singer
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Correspondence to Paul M. Dark.

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Dark, P.M., Singer, M. The validity of trans-esophageal Doppler ultrasonography as a measure of cardiac output in critically ill adults. Intensive Care Med 30, 2060–2066 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-004-2430-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-004-2430-2

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