Internal cardiac output monitor

摘要

Determining the cardiac output of a patient uses first and second electrodes disposed with the peri-aortic adventitia or fat pad of the patient. Third electrode is disposed on the cardiac atrial area of the patient. Fourth electrode is placed either externally on the body surface or internally superior to electrodes one and two. A bioelectrical impedance recorder is coupled to the third and fourth electrodes to pass a current between the electrodes. A bioimpedance recorder is coupled to the first and second electrodes to measure the resulting voltage. The output of the bioelectrical impedance recorder is processed to compute a metric corresponding to the patient's cardiac output. The third electrodes are adapted to be the cardiac pacing electrodes.