Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2024 Jun 1;30(3):251-259.
doi: 10.1097/MCC.0000000000001156. Epub 2024 Mar 28.

Monitoring CO2 kinetics as a marker of cardiopulmonary efficiency

Fernando Suarez Sipmann  1   2 , Juan Antonio Sanchez Giralt  1 , Gerardo Tusman  3
Affiliations
Review

Monitoring CO2 kinetics as a marker of cardiopulmonary efficiency

Fernando Suarez Sipmann et al. Curr Opin Crit Care. .

Abstract

Purpose of review: To describe current and near future developments and applications of CO2 kinetics in clinical respiratory and cardiovascular monitoring.

Recent findings: In the last years, we have witnessed a renewed interest in CO2 kinetics in relation with a better understanding of volumetric capnography and its derived parameters. This together with technological advances and improved measurement systems have expanded the monitoring potential of CO2 kinetics including breath by breath continuous end-expiratory lung volume and continuous noninvasive cardiac output. Dead space has slowly been gaining relevance in clinical monitoring and prognostic evaluation. Easy to measure dead space surrogates such as the ventilatory ratio have demonstrated a strong prognostic value in patients with acute respiratory failure.

Summary: The kinetics of carbon dioxide describe many relevant physiological processes. The clinical introduction of new ways of assessing respiratory and circulatory efficiency based on advanced analysis of CO2 kinetics are paving the road to a long-desired goal in clinical monitoring of critically ill patients: the integration of respiratory and circulatory monitoring during mechanical ventilation.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Jaffe MB. Infrared measurement of carbon dioxide in the human breath: ‘breathe-through’ devices from Tyndall to the present day. Anesth Analg 2008; 107:890–904.
    1. Kremeier P, Böhm SH, Tusman G. Clinical use of volumetric capnography in mechanically ventilated patients. J Clin Monit Comput 2020; 34:7–16.
    1. Suárez-Sipmann F, Villar J, Ferrando C, et al. Monitoring expired CO2 kinetics to individualize lung-protective ventilation in patients with the acute respiratory distress syndrome. Front Physiol 2021; 12:785014.
    1. Geers C, Gros G. Carbon dioxide transport and carbonic anhydrase in blood and muscle. Physiol Rev 2000; 80:681–715.
    1. Capek JM, Roy RJ. Noninvasive measurement of cardiac output using partial CO/sub 2/rebreathing. Ieee T Bio-med Eng 1988; 35:653–661.