GERÄT ZUR HERZZEITVOLUMENBESTIMMUNG EINES PATIENTEN

In order to determine the cardiac output of a patient, the patient's respiration cycle is determined and an indicator is injected into the patient's bloodstream over a period of at least substantially one respiration cycle. The change in the indicator value in the bloodstream downstream of the injection point is measured over a period of a number (n) of respiration cycles and the injected amount of indicator is established. The cardiac output is determined on the basis of the measured change in the indicator value, the injected amount of indicator blood and the initial value thereof. To this end a first variation in the indicator value is measured over at least substantially the period of one respiration cycle, directly prior to the injection, and the change in the indicator value caused by the injection is determined on the basis of the difference between the measured change in the indicator value measured over a period of n times that of the first variation and n times the measured first variation.