The newest clinical feature on SL monitors, Pulse Pressure Variation (PPV) is gaining clinical acceptance as a valuable measure of a patient’s response to fluid replacement therapy. The PPV feature can be used with arterial and generic invasive pressures; it allows clinicians to freeze a pressure waveform and identify the maximum and minimum pressure pulses, which coincide with the respiration cycle. The system then automatically calculates PPV, which may be displayed and stored in tabular and graphic trends.

Volume expansion is frequently used in critically ill patients in order to improve their hemodynamic performance. This PPV feature helps caregivers determine whether a given patient will or will not respond to fluid therapy.