Pulse densitometer indocyanine green dilution curves: a simple applicable and accurate method for determination of cardiac shunts.

Objective: Adequate hemodynamic evaluation is crucial in the management of patients with congenital heart disease. Although non-invasive diagnostic tools have reduced the need for invasive procedures, cardiac catheterization is still mandatory for absolute quantification of pressures, flows and vascular resistances in selected patients. We therefore investigated the feasibility of a new technique, non-invasive pulse densitometry (PD) in patients with intracardiac shunts and compared its results with the established standards: cuvette densitometry (CD) and oximetry (OX).

Reliability and validity of a twelve-minute walking test for coronary heart disease patients.

This study examined the reliability and validity of a 12-min. walking test for coronary heart disease patients. CHD patients (28 men, 18 women) were recruited out of 86 CHD patients of the Martini Hospital Groningen, The Netherlands.