Value of the venous-arterial PCO2 gradient to reflect the oxygen supply to demand in humans

OBJECTIVE: To test the value of venous-arterial PCO2 gradient (deltaPCO2) measurements to reflect the adequacy of cardiac index (CI) to oxygen demand in patients submitted to rapid changes of CI and oxygen demand. DESIGN: Prospective, comparative study. SETTING: Medical intensive care unit of a university hospital. PATIENTS: Ten patients with congestive heart failure exhibiting low baseline CI (< or =2.5 L/min/m2) but no evidence of global tissue hypoxia, as attested by the absence of clinical signs of shock and by normal blood lactate concentrations. INTERVENTIONS: Infusion of incremental doses of dobutamine: 0 (D0), 5 (D5), 10 (D10), and 15 (D15) microg/kg/min. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The CI increased by a linear fashion from D0 (1.6+/-0.1 L/min/m2) to D15 (2.4+/-0.2 L/min/m2) (p< .05). The mixed venous oxygen saturation (SVO2) increased from D0 (49+/-2%) to D10 (61+/-2%) (p < .05) and remained unchanged from D10 to D15 (60+/-2%). The oxygen extraction ratio (O2 ER) and the deltaPCO2 decreased from D0 (48+/-2% and 9+/-1 torr 1.2+/-0.3 kPa, respectively) to D10 (36+/-2% and 5+/-1 torr 0.7+/-0.1 kPa, respectively) (p < .05 for both comparisons) and remained unchanged from D10 to D15 (36+/-2% and 6+/-1 torr 0.8+/-0.1 kPa, respectively). The biphasic courses of SVO2, O2 ER, and deltaPCO2 were related to the course of oxygen consumption that remained constant from D0 (113+/-9 mL/min/m2) to D10 (112+/-8 mL/min/m2) and significantly increased from D10 to D15 (127+/-10 mL/min/m2) (p <.05). CONCLUSIONS: deltaPCO2 can be reliably used at the bedside for informing on the adequacy of CI with respect to a given metabolic condition, and particularly for detecting changes in oxygen demand (e.g., the changes accompanying drug-induced changes in CI). In this regard, deltaPCO2, together with O2 ER and SVO2, can help to assess the adequacy of CI to global oxygen demand.