Pulmonary artery catheter placement guided by echocardiography.
A 60-year-old woman presented with 3 days history of fever, chills, shortness of breath and productive cough. On arrival to emergency department she was critically ill. Vitals were unstable with blood pressure of 67/30 mmHg, heart rate 122 bpm, respiratory rate 30/min and SPO2 78% on 6 l of O2. Arterial blood gas was done and showed pH of 7.0, PaCO2 87 mmHg, PaO2 48 mmHg and HCO3 9 meq/l. Chest X-ray was done and confirmed right lower lobe consolidation which is consistent with pneumonia (Figure 1). She was intubated, and started on intravenous (IV) antibiotics. Blood pressure did not respond to IV fluid boluses and …