Starling Registry Study

Starling is a portable, non-invasive, cardiac output detector system. The Starling monitor measures the cardiac output by employing electrical bioreactance that measures the electrical characteristics of a volume of tissue and fluid. In the case of cardiac output measurements, the relevant tissue includes the heart and the immediate surrounding volume of the thorax. The relevant fluid is blood. Baxter Healthcare's Starling electrode is a double electrode sensor. Within each sensor, one electrode is used to transmit a high frequency sine wave into the body, while the resulting voltage is measured at the adjacent electrode. Four electrodes are placed at specific areas of the thorax, the impedance to the current flow calculated, and the electrical bioreactance waveform constructed. This information is used to determine cardiac output, and measures and displays associated hemodynamic parameters based on calculations of measurements already incorporated into the Starling device.