Doppler echocardiographic measurement of the velocity of blood flow in the ascending aorta is a noninvasive method for determining cardiac output in the critically ill patient. Fifty-four patients in the medical intensive care unit (35 men and 19 women, age range 41 to 91 years) in whom a Swan-Ganz catheter had been inserted underwent measurement of cardiac output with use of a commercially available continuous-wave Doppler echocardiographic instrument. The aortic root diameter was measured by A-mode echocardiography. An additional 26 patients (17 men and 9 women, age range 20 to 83 years) who had undergone an open-heart surgical procedure and had hemodynamic monitoring in the postoperative period also underwent Doppler measurement of cardiac output. In these patients, the aortic root diameter was measured directly intraoperatively. Cardiac output was also determined by thermodilution in both groups. An adequate A-mode study was possible in 83% of the medical patients but only 27% of the surgical patients. Doppler signals were adequate in 84% of the medical patients and 92% of the surgical patients. The correlation between thermodilution and Doppler-derived cardiac output was good in both the medical (r = 0.94, SEE = 0.78, P less than 0.001) and the surgical (r = 0.85, SEE = 0.78, P less than 0.001) group. Doppler echocardiography is a promising noninvasive method for determining cardiac output in critically ill patients.