We tested prospectively 30 hypotensive shock patients using a continuous, on-line, real-time hemodynamic and oxygen transport monitoring system with a previously described predictive index, modified for the clinical conditions in our ICU. Continuous monitoring and display of cardiac output and 20 or more derived variables, together with the predictive index, were a feasible and useful approach. Unlike previously documented series of elective postoperative general surgical patients, our series consisted of patients with multiple trauma, myocardial infarction, sepsis, and other medical emergencies as well as postoperative cardiac and general surgical patients, all of whom had respiratory failure (acute respiratory distress syndrome). In addition to these differences, our patients were invariably admitted to the ICU after the nadir of their hypotensive crisis. To compare the continuous recorded values with previous studies that used intermittent measurements, three comparable time intervals were selected; data at these time intervals and the predictions derived from them were in satisfactory agreement with prior studies. Moreover, therapeutic goals based on the median values of survivors of the present series were similar, but not identical, to prior series despite differences in the clinical mix and the later postresuscitation ICU admissions of our series.