Published in:
Open Access
01-12-2016 | Letter
VCO2 calorimetry: stop tossing stones, it’s time for building!
Authors:
Elisabeth De Waele, Patrick M. Honoré, Herbert D. Spapen
Published in:
Critical Care
|
Issue 1/2016
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Excerpt
We followed with interest the discussion [
1,
2] fueled by the study of Stapel et al. [
3] who reported fairly accurate assessment of energy expenditure (EE) in critically ill patients based on ventilator-derived carbon dioxide production (VCO
2). The proposed technique is elegant and valid but has inherent limitations. It is applicable in patients who are in one way or another ventilator-dependent but not in spontaneously breathing yet oxygen-dependent subjects. We concur that VO
2 is the most relevant variable for EE measurement. However, the most accurate and precise estimation of EE in a critically ill population can only be obtained by sampling of inspired and expired oxygen/carbon dioxide concentrations and measuring expired gas flow. This is the core task of indirect calorimetry [
4]. …