ABSTRACT
The principal function of the heart is to transport an adequate amount of oxygen from the lung to the peripheral tissue to maintain organ metabolism. Heart rate can be monitored by palpating the apex impulse on the chest wall or the arterial pulse, auscultation, recording arterial pulse waves on a monitor, or with an electrocardiogram. Palpation of the apex impulse or the arterial pulse detects cardiac activity but may be inaccurate in the obese patient or patient in shock. Arterial pulse can be palpated from the femoral, lingual, brachial, dorsal pedal, and median coccygeal arteries. Right-sided cardiac catheterization is performed with a pulmonary artery catheter or Swan-Ganz catheter placed in the pulmonary artery. The Pulmonary Capillary Wedge Pressure (PCWP) is measured by wedging the Swan-Ganz catheter with a balloon inflated at the tip of the catheter. The PCWP is also called left ventricular end-diastolic pressure because at the end of diastole the mitral valves are opened.
