Lack of Agreement Between Thermodilution and Fick Methods in the Measurement of Cardiac Output

Abstract

A comparison between the thermodilution method and the Fick method of cardiac output measurement in 30 critically ill patients was performed. Although there was good correlation between both methods, there was poor agreement. The Bland and Altman method of assessing agreement between 2 measurements is the preferred method of agreement assessment. The variables possibly responsible for this disagreement are noted.