The CO
2 rebreathing method for the determination of cardiac output has been computerized.CO
2 concentration of expired air is analyzed by a infrared CO
2 analyzer.The output voltageof the CO
2 analyzer is sampled by a micro computer through a 12-bit analog-to-digitalconverter.The values of end-tidal CO
2 percentages (FET
CO
2) during nomal respiration and thepeak values of CO
2 percentages in the lung-bag system (Fb
CO
2) during rebreathing are detectedby the computer automatically.The detemination of the partial pressure of CO
2 in mixed venous blood (Pv
CO
2) is perfomedby computer analysis.The rise in the partial pressure of CO
2 in the lung-bag system (Pb
CO
2)with time (T) is expressed by the equation [chemical formula] This equation can be transfomed logerithmically to [chemical formula] At first, Pvco
2 is assumed to be a slightly large value than the last value of Pb
CO
2 and theregression equation of ln (1-Pb
CO
2/Pv
CO
2) on T is calculated by means of the least-squaresanalysis.Then Pv
CO
2 is successively changed positively, and the regression equations arecalculated on each time.The value of Pv
CO
2 which maximize the value of coefficient ofdetermination (r
2) is adopted as the very value of Pv
CO
2.The partial pressure of CO
2 in arterialblood (Pa
CO
2) is a ssumed to be the same as in end-tidal air.A comparison was made between the cardiac output determined by this computerized andthe conventional CO
2 rebreathing methods as described by Jernerus et al.(1963).The valuesobtained by the two methods were almost identical, all of 9 paired deteminations of cardiacoutput obtained during exercise were within 10% of one another and 33 of 36 values during restand recovery were within 20% of one another.The correlation coefficient between the valuesobtained by the two methods was 0.992.The computerized method is a more precise and moreconvenient technique for deteming cardiac output.
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