Clinical applicability of functional hemodynamic monitoring

Recent interest in functional hemodynamic monitoring for the bedside assessment of cardiovascular insufficiency has heightened. Functional hemodynamic monitoring is the assessment of the dynamic interactions of hemodynamic variables in response to a defined perturbation. Accordingly, fluid responsiveness can be predicted in a quantities fashion by measuring as arterial pulse pressure variation and left ventricular stroke volume variation during positive pressure breathing or the change in cardiac output response to a passive leg raising maneuver. However, volume responsiveness, though important, reflects only part of the overall spectrum of functional physiological variables that can be measured to define physiologic state and monitor response to therapy. Dynamic tissue O₂ saturation (StO₂) responses to complete stop flow conditions, which can be created by measuring hand StO₂ and occluding flow with a blood pressure cuff, assesses cardiovascular sufficiency and microcirculatory blood flow distribution. Furthermore, these measures can be made increasingly more sensitive and specific if coupled to other "traditional" measures of organ perfusion, such as blood lactate levels.