Determination of Cardiac Output With Multislice Spiral Computed Tomography: A Validation Study

Objective:To validate and to determine the reproducibility of cardiac output (CO) measurements based on a test-bolus examination in multislice spiral computed tomography (MSCT) in comparison with invasively measured CO using the thermal dilution technique. Material and Methods:In 8 swine, CO was determined by invasive thermal dilution technique and by analysis of enhancement data from dynamic MSCT test-bolus examinations. To assess reproducibility, all MSCT examinations were performed twice. Results were compared using Pearson's correlation coefficient and Bland-Altman plots. Results:Measure by thermal dilution technique CO was 3.71 ± 1.12 L/min, whereas CO was 3.67 ± 1.30 L/min using MSCT. Pearson's correlation coefficient was 0.89. The average deviation between MSCT and thermal dilution technique was 0.04 L/min with a standard deviation of 0.59 L/min. There was a good agreement between both MSCT measurements with a mean deviation of −0.03 L/min and a standard deviation of 0.51 L/min. Conclusion:CO can reliably be determined from MSCT by means of indicator dilution technique. Measurements are reproducible and provide valuable information on the overall cardiovascular performance without application of additional contrast material or radiation. As this technique does not require time-consuming postprocessing it can be added to routine reporting.