Use of thermodilution cardiac output overestimates diagnoses of exercise-induced pulmonary hypertension

Pulm Circ. 2017 Jan 1;7(1):253-255. doi: 10.1086/690629. eCollection 2017 Mar.

Abstract

Two new definitions of exercise-induced pulmonary hypertension (EIPH) have emerged. Both rely on measuring cardiac output (CO), yet this remains unstandardized. In our cohort of patients undergoing invasive cardiopulmonary exercise testing, we found that using thermodilution CO rather than direct Fick CO led to a significant excess of EIPH diagnoses.