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

Estimation of ventricular contractility 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-ventricle contractility as well as 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 realtime.