Grasberger R C, Yeston N S
Crit Care Med. 1986 Jun;14(6):577-9. doi: 10.1097/00003246-198606000-00013.
Cardiac output was measured by thermodilution and ear densitometry in surgical ICU patients who had pulmonary arterial catheters. Overall comparison based on 56 sets of triplicate measurements revealed a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.76 between the two techniques. Although ear densitometry was more accurate with injection via the antecubital vein (r = 0.88) vs. more distal injection (r = 0.67), these data suggest that this technique lacks the accuracy for clinical application.
