U. Bauersfeld1, M. Weiss2 and on behalf of the Working Group on Non-invasive

Background. We compared cardiac output (CO) measurements by the non-invasive electrical velocimetry (Aesculonw) monitor with the pulmonary artery catheter (PAC) thermodilution method in children. Methods. CO values using the Aesculonw monitor and PAC thermodilution were simul-taneously recorded during cardiac catheterization in children. Measurements were performed under general anaesthesia. To compare, three consecutive measurements for each patient within 3 min were obtained. The means of the three values were compared using simple regression and Bland–Altman analysis. Data were presented as mean (SD). A mean percentage of,30 % was defined to indicate clinical useful reliability of the Aesculonw monitor. Results. A total of 50 patients with a median (range) age of 7.5 (0.5–16.5) yr were enrolled in the study. Mean CO values were 3.7 (1.5) litre min21 (PAC thermodilution) and 3.1 (1.7) litre min21 (Aesculonw monitor). Analysis for CO measurement showed a good correlation between the two methods (r0.894; P,0.0001). The bias between the two methods was 0.66 litre min21 with a precision of 1.49 litre min21. The mean percentage error for CO measure-ments was 48.9 % for the Aesculonw monitor when compared with PAC thermodilution. Conclusions. Electrical velocimetry using the Aesculonw monitor did not provide reliable CO values when compared with PAC thermodilution. Whether the Aesculonw monitor can be used as a CO trend monitor has to be assessed by further investigations in patients with chan-ging haemodynamics