CORRELATION OF END TIDALAND ARTERIAL CARBON DIOXIDE LEVELS IN MECHANICALLY VENTILATED CHILDREN

Abstract

The study was conducted in paediatric intensive care unit of a tertiary teaching institution of North India from June 2017 to May 2018 to evaluate the relationship between EtCO2 and arterial PaCO2 in mechanically ventilated children. Study design was prospective observational. All children (>1 month and <18 years of age) who were intubated and mechanically ventilated were taken in the study. The patients were included in the study after approval of the institutional ethical committee and written informed valid consent obtained from the Guardian of the patient. Total 44 patients were studied. Out of these cases 72% were males and 22% were females. The mean age of population was 6.61years. The overall PaCO2 was 38.04 ± 17.12 mmHg and mean EtCO2 was 33.36 ± 13.26 mm Hg. The mean PaCO2 in respiratory and non respiratory group was 43.56 ± 18.48 mm Hg and 33.88 ± 14.86 mm Hg respectively. The mean EtCO2 in respiratory and non respiratory group was 30.33 ± 12.21 mm Hg and 37.37 ± 13.66 mm Hg. The overall correlation coefficient between EtCO2 and PaCO2 pairs was 0.831 with P - value of 0.0001. The correlation coefficient between EtCO2 and PaCO2 pairs in respiratory group was 0.768 and P value of <0.0001 while in non respiratory group correlation coefficient was 0.848 and P value was <0.0001. in Conclusion a strong positive correlation was observed between PaCO2 and EtCO2 pairs in our study on mechanically ventilated patients.