Method and apparatus for noninvasive determination of cardiac output

摘要

A determination of cardiac output of a living being is obtained noninvasively from measurements of heart rate and pulse timing points from a blood flow waveform in relation to the "R" line from a corresponding ECG signal. The blood flow waveform may be obtained indirectly, by differentiating the output of a plethysmograph or an instantaneous blood pressure sensor or by integrating the output of a doppler sensor, or indirectly from a magnetic flowmeter, for example. Heart rate and an "R" line trigger signal may be obtained from an electrocardiogram signal. Experimentally obtained heart rate and pulse timing data were compared with invasively measured cardiac output and were processed by regression analysis to yield an equation correlation of 0.73.