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| | Cardiac Output |
 | | The cardiac output represents the volume of blood that is delivered to the body, and is therefore an important factor in the determination of the effectiveness of the heart to deliver blood to the rest of the body, (i.e., determining heart failure, inadequate circulation, etc). |
 | | By definition, two major factors contribute to the cardiac output: the heart rate, which is the number of heartloads of blood is ejected per unit of time, and the stroke volume, which is effectively the volume of blood that the heart can fill with, which will be ejected upon contraction. |
 | | Cardiac Output is usually measured using the Fick Principle, which relates the cardiac output of the patient to the oxygen consumption, or by thermodilution, in which cold saline is injected into the right atrium and changes in the temperature in the pulmonary artery are recorded. |
| bme.usc.edu /bme403/Section_3/cardiac_output.html (778 words) |
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