Noninvasive Pulse Contour Analysis for Hemodynamic Assessment in Patients With Chronic Heart Failure

Determination of hemodynamics plays an important role in the diagnosis of chronic heart failure. The gold standard is intermittent thermodilution via pulmonary artery catheter (PAC). Because of its invasiveness, there are certain risks of this method, e.g. injuries to the nerves and vessels, excessive bleedings, pneumothorax, cardiac arrhythmias etc. Noninvasive pulse contour Analysis (NPCA) is a new method which is able to determine hemodynamics noninvasively via a finger cuff. Advantages towards pulmonary artery Catheterization include a lower risk and an operator-Independent easy handling. Some studies investigated the accuracy, precision and trend abilities of noninvasive pulse contour analysis during anesthesia and in the intensive care unit, but there is no data for its use in patients with chronic heart failure. The investigators therefore initiated this Trial to verify if NPCA is suitable for Determination of hemodynamics in patients with chronic heart failure. For NPCA the investigators use the CNAP monitor (CNSystems Medizintechnik AG). As a reference method the investigators use intermittent thermodilution via PAC (TD). Three averaged autocalibrated NPCA-CO-measurements are going to be validated against three averaged TD-CO-measurements. Moreover, measurements of cardiac index, stroke volume, systemic vascular resistance and a between-calibration-drift will be performed. The investigators will assess the accuracy and precision of the individual values.