Observational Study to Evaluate Peripheral IntraVenous Analysis (PIVA) in Euvolemic, Hypovolemic, and Hypervolemic Emergency Department Patients

The determination of volume status remains a clinical challenge in medicine. Patients may develop hypovolemia (too little fluids in the vascular space) due to conditions such as hemorrhage, dehydration, or infection with vascular leak. Alternatively, patients may become hypervolemic (too much fluids in the vascular space), due to conditions such as heart failure, renal failure, or iatragenic over-resuscitation all of which overwhelm the kidney's ability to regulate intravascular volume status. In clinical practice, clinicians strive to return patients to euvolemia (the "right" volume status) through the administration of intravenous fluids or diuretics which remove fluids to achieve homeostasis. While there are a number of proposed clinical exam findings (e.g. dry mucous membranes or skin turgor), measurements (e.g. central venous pressure), or laboratory tests (e.g. blood urea nitrogen), none are precise or universally accepted as reliable methodologies to assess volume status.

The goal of this study is to perform a prospective observational study on three distinct cohorts during ED presentation to assess the variability and performance of PIVA in tracking volume status.