Background and aims CO monitoring has an important role for management of ACF in PICU. This monitoring device tracks the changes in CO induced by volume expansion or inotropic drugs. In this way CO can be measured noninvasively using aortic blood flow (ABF), continuously at the descending thoracic aorta with OD or discontinued in ascending thoracic aorta with TTE.

The aim of this study is to compare the CO obtained by TTE and OD in the management of ACF in PICU.

Methods A prospective and comparative study conducted in PICU between march 2012 and march 2014.

We investigate 16 mechanically ventilated children less than 1 year who had tachycardia, hypotension, oliguria, delayed capillary refilling or haemodynamic instability despite vasopressor drugs, we compare the measurements of the CO and strong volume (SV) obtained by OD ‘ATYS-WAKI 2’ and TTE ‘SCHIMADZU SDU 2200 PRO’ before and after volume expansion (VE).

Results 32 paired (CO and SV) measurements were obtained: a strong correlation was found between CO obtained by OD and by TTE before and after VE (Index of Pearson: R² = 0,983, R² = 0.977). The same correlation between the SV obtained by OD and by TTE was observed before and after VE respectively (Index of Pearson: R² = 0.982, R² = 0.983).

Conclusion OD is an appropriated, very simple and noninvasive method to measure CO. This technique remains reliable and reproducible comparative to TTE to guide VE.