Estimation of pulmonary capillary pressure: different methods for different pathophysiological processes?
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Correspondence: Silvia Nunes silvia.nunes@pshp.fi
Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland
Critical Care 2005, 9:143-144 doi:10.1186/cc3060
Published: 17 February 2005Abstract
In the absence of a direct method with which to measure pulmonary capillary pressure in humans, various methods for analyzing the pulmonary artery pressure decay following balloon occlusion have been described. In this issue of Critical Care, Souza and coworkers investigate the adequacy of these methods for assessing various pathophysiological processes. They studied patients presenting with pathologies characterized by different distributions of pulmonary vascular resistance. Their findings suggest that no single method for estimating pulmonary capillary pressure is adequate for all disease processes.