[Hemodynamic monitoring in the critically patient. Recomendations of the Cardiological Intensive Care and CPR Working Group of the Spanish Society of Intensive Care and Coronary Units].

Hemodynamic monitoring offers valuable information on cardiovascular performance in the critically ill, and has become a fundamental tool in the diagnostic approach and in the therapy guidance of those patients presenting with tissue hypoperfusion. From introduction of the pulmonary artery catheter to the latest less invasive technologies, hemodynamic monitoring has been surrounded by many questions regarding its usefulness and its ultimate impact on patient prognosis. The Cardiological Intensive Care and CPR Working Group (GTCIC-RCP) of the Spanish Society of Intensive Care and Coronary Units (SEMICYUC) has recently impulsed the development of an updating series in hemodynamic monitoring.

[Estimating cardiac output. Utility in the clinical practice. Available invasive and non-invasive monitoring].

This aim of this review is to provide a detailed review of the physiologic conditions and variables of the cardiac output, as well as review the different techniques available for its measurement. We also want to establish the clinical situations in which the measurement of cardiac output can add valuable information for the management of critically ill patients. The Fick technique, used in the beginning to calculate cardiac output, has been replaced today by thermodilution techniques (transcardiac or transpulmonary), lithium dilution, bioreactance, Doppler technique or echocardiography.

[Intermediate care units. Health care consequences in a reference hospital].

Introduction: Intermediate Care Units are forms to provide health care services to potentially critical patients that allow for improved cost-benefit ratio of the care offered by Intensive Medicine Departments.

Objective: Analyze heart care repercussion that the permanent opening of this type of unit had in a reference teaching center.

Design: Prospective.