The purpose of this review is to review the importance of cardiac output (CO) or stroke volume (SV) measurement and to discuss the various methods (devices) used in determination of CO.

Bedside cardiac output measurement is an important part of routine hemodynamic monitoring in the differential diagnosis of circulatory shock and fluid management.

Cardiac output measurement devices can be classified into two types: those use simple physical principles with minimal assumptions, and those predicting CO via mathematical modelling with a number of assumptions.

Measurement of cardiac output or stroke volume is important in critically ill patients. Most devices have accuracy and reliability issues. The choice of device should depend on the purpose of measurement. For diagnostic purposes, devices based on simple physical principles, especially thermodilution and transthoracic echocardiography are more reliable due to accuracy.

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