Assessment of ventricular contractility and ventricular-arterial coupling with a model-based sensor

Abstract

Estimation of ventricular contractility and ventricular arterial coupling is clinically important in diagnosing cardiac dysfunction in the critically ill. However, experimental assessment of indexes of ventricular contractility, such as the end-systolic pressure-volume relationship requires a highly invasive maneuver. This research describes the use of a previously validated cardiovascular system (CVS) model and identification process to evaluate the right ventricular arterial coupling in septic shock. The results show good agreement with the gold-standard experimental assessment (conductance catheter method), and offer the potential to develop a model-based sensor to monitor the coupling in clinical real-time.