Cardiac Function as Measured by Non-invasive Electrical Velocimetry Cardiac Monitor in Hospitalized Children

The aim of the study is to evaluate the ability of a new FDA-approved non-invasive Electrical Velocimetry (EV) cardiac monitor called AESCULON (Cardiotronic Inc, La Jolla CA) to detect and trend hemodynamic changes in hospitalized ambulatory pediatric patients during recovery from acute illness. We postulate that if the cardiac monitor can trend hemodynamic changes in hypertensive patients whose mean arterial pressure (MAP) decreases to normal levels, or hypotensive patients whose MAP increases to normal levels over several days, it may improve our understanding of different disease processes and allow us to improve care. We also seek to establish normative data for different measures provided by the AESCULON monitor - specifically cardiac output (CO) and systemic vascular resistance (SVR), which are the prime determinants of MAP.