The Systolic Blood Pressure Variation as an Indicator of Pulmonary Capillary Wedge Pressure in Ventilated Patients

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Abstract
Animal data have suggested that the systolic pressure variation (SPV) noted during positive pressure ventilation may be a sensitive indicator of hypovolaemia. The aim of this study was to correlate the SPV with the pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP) in a heterogeneous group of ICU patients on volume-cycled ventilation. Three hundred data sets were collected on 226 patients. The correlation coefficient between the SPV and PCWP for the first half of the data set was - 0.84 (P*0.7). Using this formula the predicted PCWP was then correlated with the measured PCWP using the second half of the data base. The correlation coefficient was 0.87 (P<0.001). The correlation coefficient between the SPV and PCWP for the entire data base (300 observations) was -0.86 (P<0.001). It is concluded that analysis of the arterial pressure tracing may be useful in estimating the pulmonary capillary wedge pressure in ventilated patients.