Patent ID: 6402697
Filing Date: 2002-06-11
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
A cardiac output monitoring system for non-invasively determining cardiac output on a breath-by-breath basis from respiratory gasses of a subject, comprising:a flowmeter configured to receive a respiratory gas stream and determine respired flow rates at selected time intervals during a respiratory cycle, wherein the respiratory cycle includes inhalation of a gas stream into the subject's lungs and exhalation of the gas stream out of the subject's lungs, so as to provide flow rate data as a function of time over the respiratory cycle; a gas analyzer configured to simultaneously determine individual concentrations of a plurality of constituents in the gas stream in real time at selected time intervals during the respiratory cycle so as to provide concentration data for each constituent as a function of time over the respiratory cycle; and a processor coupled to the flowmeter and the gas analyzer and configured to determine cardiac output during the respiratory cycle utilizing flow rate data obtained from the flowmeter and the concentration data obtained from the gas analyzer.