Measured Oxygen Consumption During Pediatric Cardiac Catheterization is More Accurate than Assumed Oxygen Consumption

When calculating cardiac index (C.I.) by the Fick method, oxygen consumption (VO₂) is often unknown, so assumed values are typically used. This practice introduces a known source of inaccuracy into the calculation. Using a measured VO₂ (mVO₂) from the CARESCAPE E-sCAiOVX module provides an alternative that may improve accuracy of C.I. calculations. Our aim is to validate this measurement in a general pediatric catheterization population and compare its accuracy with assumed VO₂ (aVO₂). mVO₂ was recorded for all patients undergoing cardiac catheterization with general anesthesia and controlled ventilation during the study period. mVO₂ was compared to the reference VO₂ (refVO₂) determined by the reverse Fick method using cardiac MRI (cMRI) or thermodilution (TD) as a reference standard for measurement of C.I. when available. 193 VO₂ measurements were obtained, including 71 with a corresponding cMRI or TD measure of cardiac index for validation. mVO₂ demonstrated satisfactory concordance and correlation with the TD- or cMRI-derived refVO₂ (ρ_c = 0.73, r² = 0.63) with a mean bias of - 3.2% (SD ± 17.3%). Assumed VO₂ demonstrated much weaker concordance and correlation with refVO₂ (ρ_c = 0.28, r² = 0.31) with a mean bias of + 27.5% (SD ± 30.0%). Subgroup analysis of patients < 36 months of age demonstrated that error in mVO₂ was not significantly different from that observed in older patients. Many previously reported prediction models for assuming VO₂ performed poorly in this younger age range. Measured oxygen consumption using the E-sCAiOVX module is significantly more accurate than assumed VO₂ when compared to TD- or cMRI-derived VO₂ in a pediatric catheterization lab.

Use of Virtual Reality for Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Simulation

Simulation is a key component of training in the pediatric cardiac intensive care unit (CICU), a complex environment that lends itself to virtual reality (VR)-based simulations. However, VR has not been previously described for this purpose. Two simulations were developed to test the use of VR in simulating pediatric CICU clinical scenarios, one simulating junctional ectopic tachycardia and low cardiac output syndrome, and the other simulating acute respiratory failure in a patient with suspected coronavirus disease 2019. Six attending pediatric cardiac critical care physicians were recruited to participate in the simulations as a pilot test of VR’s feasibility for educational and practice improvement efforts in this highly specialized clinical environment. All participants successfully navigated the VR environment and met the critical endpoints of the two clinical scenarios. Qualitative feedback was overall positive with some specific critiques regarding limited realism in some mechanical aspects of the simulation. This is the first described use of VR in pediatric cardiac critical care simulation.