Keywords

hemodynamic monitoring, hemodynamic waveforms, pulmonary artery catheter

 

Authors

  1. Daily, Elaine Kiess RN, BS, FCCM

Abstract

The pulmonary artery catheter provides the opportunity to acquire indirectly important diagnostic and therapeutic information about the function of the two pumping chambers of the heart-the right and left ventricles-during the two phases of the cardiac cycle-systole and diastole. Appropriate use of hemodynamic data acquired via the pulmonary artery catheter requires the accurate measurement, analysis, and interpretation of hemodynamic pressure waveforms.