• S Romagnoli, S Bevilacqua, C Lazzeri, F Ciappi, D Dini, C Pratesi, G F Gensini, and S M Romano.
• Heart and Vessels Department, Cardiac and Vascular Anesthesia and Post-Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit Careggi Hospital, Florence, Italy.
• HSR Proc Intensive Care Cardiovasc Anesth. 2009 Jan 1; 1 (2): 20-7.

AbstractInvasive hemodynamic monitoring is a cornerstone of the care of critically ill and hemodynamically unstable patients in both intensive care units and operating rooms. The assessment of cardiac output by means of the pulmonary artery catheter has been considered the clinical gold standard. Nevertheless, several concerns have been raised regarding its invasiveness, usefulness, and associated complica-tions. These disadvantages have led to the development, during the last years, of a number of less invasive technologies for cardiac output determination. Among them, those based on the analysis of a peripheral arterial waveform have become commonly used. Most Care(®) is a minimally invasive arterial pressure based monitor powered by the Pressure Recording Analytical Method (PRAM), the only algorithm that does not require prior calibration or pre-calculated parameters and which is based of flow. PRAM provides the measurement of the main factors of hemodynamics, such as systemic blood pressures, stroke volume, cardiac output, and vascular resistances. Moreover, dynamic indices of fluid responsiveness are continuously displayed. In the present paper, we reviewed the current literature focusing on advantages and limitations of PRAM.

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