Simple method for evaluating cardiac output.

This study compared the accuracy of a formula calculating cardiac output utilizing a patient size modification of a pulse pressure formula of Starr with that measured with a standard thermal dilution technique. During a six-month period 111 patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) on the cardiothoracic and vascular surgical services had comparison of their cardiac output by these two methods. The basic formula of Starr for stroke volume was converted to a stroke volume index by dividing by 1.

A rapid hemodynamic monitor of acute ischemia during cardiac procedures: changes in relaxation via a continuous left ventricular pressure-derivative loop.

Background: Procedures that induce ischemic pre-conditioning during cardiac surgery will require a rapidly visualized hemodynamic monitor of acute ischemia. This study investigated the utility of a continuous loop tracing of left ventricular pressure (LVP) plotted against its derivative (dP/dt) as a visual beat-to-beat monitor of acute changes in myocardial relaxation due to global ischemia.

Materials And Methods: In 11 dogs, LVP, recorded via a micromanometer-tip catheter, was plotted against dP/dt as a continuous loop.

Sentinel nodal assessment in patients with carcinoma of the lung.

Background: Assessment of sentinel nodes to predict metastases in a regional nodal basin is valuable for staging patients with melanoma and breast carcinoma. This study tested whether injection of isosulfan blue and technetium-99 could identify mediastinal sentinel nodes in patients with lung carcinoma and determine whether sentinel node histology predicts distal nodal metastases.

Methods: Isosulfan blue and technetium-99 were injected into the tumor and pulmonary resection performed.

Findlay Implantable Two-Stage Centrifugal Pump.

The Findlay centrifugal pump is unique in its two-stage pumping mechanisms and in its complementary interrelationship of the stages to each other and to the exit system, and it forms an extremely efficient unit. The first stage is a lift force pump as an inlet. The second and major stage is a shear force pump.