Hemodynamic Monitoring and Vasoactive Support

Subject demographics, pre-operative risk score (euroSCORE II) and medical history were collected during initial screening. Cardiac index (CI), central venous pressure (CVP), pulmonary artery pressure (PAP), and mixed venous oxygen saturation (SvO₂) were continuously monitored by pulmonary artery catheter (Edwards Lifesciences LLC, Irvine, CA, USA). Arterial blood pressure was measured continuously using a standard invasive arterial line. Systemic hemodynamic data, vasopressor infusion doses, and mixed venous oxygen saturation were recorded at baseline then every 3 min for 30 min after application of the topical nitroglycerin solution³⁵ . The vasopressor-inotrope score (VIS) was calculated to summarize the degree of post-operative vasoactive support was required at the time of the study^{36 (link)}. Norepinephrine equivalents were calculated for each patient at each time point^{37 (link)}.