In patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), which also as known as extracorporeal life support, may be used. This technique helps the lungs by providing oxygenation to the blood via an external gas exchanger and thus participates partially or fully in gas exchange. The ECMO device includes a pump for draining and returning blood at a certain blood flow rate (ECMO blood flow). An ECMO rate that is adapted to the patient's cardiac output (CO) is essential for effective oxygenation for patients. The objective for clinicians is an ECMO blood flow to cardiac output ≥40%, which can go up to 100% as needed. In addition to the expected benefit in the management of the patient with ARDS, measuring CO is, therefore, all the more important in patients requiring ECMO. Monitoring CO in a patient with ECMO is not only for determining the minimum ECMO blood flow rate but also for optimizing the functioning of the ECMO. However, the validity of techniques for measuring CO in patients with ECMO has been poorly studied. The reliability of the CO measurement by transpulmonary thermodilution is questioned since the extracorporeal circulation may influence the pathway of cold indicator injected into the patients' circulation and the thermodilution curve measured from the femoral arterial is thereby modified.
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The measurements of CO by transpulmonary thermodilution compared to CO measured by echocardiography
Timeframe: The first week during patient is under ECMO assistance