• Andre Shih, Steeve Giguère, L Chris Sanchez, Alexander Valverde, Carsten Bandt, Hope Jankunas, and Sheilah Robertson.
• Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA. shiha@vetmed.ufl.edu
• J Vet Emerg Crit Care (San Antonio). 2009 Oct 1; 19 (5): 438-43.

ObjectiveTo compare cardiac output (CO) measured by use of lithium dilution (LiDCO) and ultrasound velocity dilution (UDCO) in conditions of high, intermediate, and low CO in anesthetized foals.DesignOriginal prospective study.SettingUniversity teaching hospital.AnimalsSix foals 1-3 days of age (38-45 kg).InterventionsNeonatal foals were anesthetized and instrumented to measure direct blood pressure, heart rate, arterial blood gases, and CO. The CO was measured by use of LiDCO and UDCO techniques. Measurements were obtained from each foal at baseline and during low, intermediate, and high CO states. Measurements were converted to cardiac index (cardiac index=CO/body weight) values for statistical analysis. Agreement between the 2 methods was determined using Bland and Altman analysis and concordance correlation coefficients.Measurements And Main ResultsLiDCO determinations of CO ranged between 4.0 and 14.0 L/min resulting in cardiac index ranging between 75.5 and 310 mL/kg/min. There was no significant effect of blood pressure variation on bias or relative bias (P=0.62 and 0.93, respectively). The mean bias and relative bias of UDCO (+/-SD) compared with LiDCO were -20.1+/-39.2 mL/kg/min and -7.7+/-23.4%, respectively. Concordance correlation coefficient between LiDCO and UDCO was 0.833.ConclusionsWhen compared with LiDCO, the UDCO technique has acceptable clinical utility for measuring CO in healthy anesthetized newborn foals.

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