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Abstract

A central venous cather (1) is placed in the vena cava superior (2) and equipped with a heating coil (3) for emitting heat pulses in the immediate proximity of the distal end (5) of the catheter (1) in order to introduce travelling temperature deviations to the patient's circulation. The power transferred to the blood stream during emission of each heat pulse represents an input signal for modified thermodilution measurements. Each travelling temperature deviation is detected as a system response corresponding to an input signal, when it reaches an arterial catheter (14) which additionally comprises a pressure sensor (17) for measuring the local blood pressure in the arteria femoralis (16) as a function of time. The computer (18) has stored thereon an executable computer program for repeatedly determining a reference cardiac output value from a plurality of input signals and corresponding system responses by thermodilution curve evaluation methods and for determining from the blood pressure function hemodynamic parameters by pulse contour analysis methods using the most recent respective reference cardiac output value for quasi-continuous recalibration.

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