Abstract:Objective To evaluate the use of pleth variability index (PVI) in predicting the decrease in cardiac output (CO) from supine position to prone position. Methods Forty patients of ASA I-III aged 35-62 years undergoing elective lumbar spine surgery were enrolled. After induction of general anesthesia, CO and stroke volume variability (SVV) were monitored with Vigileo system, while PVI and perfusion index (PI) were monitored with Massion Radical 7 system. Heart rate (HR), mean arterial pressure (MAP), CO, SVV, cardiac index (CI), stroke volume index (SVI), PI and PVI were recorded both at supine position and prone position. The difference of cardiac output ( △ CO) before and after prone position was calculated with the following equation: △ CO = [CO (supine)- CO (prone)] / CO (supine) × 100%. △ CO of 15% was regarded as the threshold that the patient's cardiac preload is sufficient enough to help to alleviate the decline in cardiac output when turned prone. The receiver operatorcharacteristic (ROC) curves of the hemodynamic indicators were drawn to decide the accuracy of its prediction on the cardiac preload and the diagnostic threshold. And the correlation between SVV and PVI was also analyzed both before and after prone position. Results ROC curves manifested that the area under the curves of SVV and PVI was 0.946 and 0.844 respectively, larger than those of other hemodynamic indexes. The sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic threshold of SVV were 91.3%, 88.2% and 12.5% respectively; whereas the sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic threshold of PVI were 87.0%, 76.5% and 14.5 % respectively. There was a linear relationship between PVI and SVV both in supine position and prone position, and the correlation coefficient in supine position (r = 0.712, P < 0.05) was higher than that in prone position (r = 0.440, P < 0.05). Conclusions Pleth variability index helps to predict the decline of cardiac output due to the prone position through calculating the patients' cardiac preload in supine position.