A pilot study of the relationship between Doppler‐estimated carotid and brachial artery flow and cardiac index. (25th May 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Weber, U.; Glassford, N. J.; Eastwood, G. M.; Bellomo, R.; Hilton, A. K.
• Is Part Of: Anaesthesia. Volume 70:Number 10(2015:Oct.)
• Page Start: 1140
• Page End: 1147
• Publication Date: 2015-05-25
• Subjects: Anesthesia -- Periodicals; 617.96
• DOI: 10.1111/anae.13069
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0003-2409

Abstract

Summary: We measured carotid and brachial artery blood flow by Doppler ultrasound in 11 human volunteers, and related these to cardiac index and to each other. The median (IQR [range]) carotid arterial blood flow was 0.334 (0.223–0.381 [0.052–0.563]) l.min −1 on the right and 0.315 (0.223–0.369 [0.061–0.690]) l.min −1 on the left. The brachial arterial blood flow was 0.049 (0.033–0.062 [0.015–0.204]) l.min −1 on the right and 0.039 (0.027–0.054 [0.011–0.116]) on the left. Cardiac index was 3.2 (2.8–3.5 [1.9–5.4]) l.min −1 .m −2 . There was a moderate to good correlation between right‐and left‐sided flows (brachial: ρ = 0.45; carotid: ρ = 0.567). Brachial and carotid flow had no or a negative correlation with cardiac index (right brachial: ρ = −0.145, left brachial: ρ = −0.349; right carotid: ρ = −0.376, left carotid: ρ = −0.285). In contrast to some previous studies, we found that Doppler‐estimated peripheral arterial blood flows only show a weak correlation with cardiac index and cannot be used to provide non‐invasive estimates of cardiac index in man.