Left atrial and pulmonary artery wedge pressure monitoring during balloon mitral valvuloplasty.
OBJECTIVE
We tested the accuracy of pulmonary artery wedge (PAW) pressure as a guide to the degree of pulmonary venous hypertension.


METHODS
Left atrial (LA) pressure and PAW pressure were analysed before and after balloon mitral valvuloplasty (BMV) in patients with rheumatic mitral stenosis.


RESULTS
Correlations between LA and PAW pressures for a wave, v wave and mean pressure were excellent before BMV (r=0.96, r=0.97 and r=0.99 respectively) and after BMV (r=0.98, r=0.98 and r=1.00 respectively). The fall in mean LA pressure (11.3 +/- 7.9 mm Hg) and in mean PAW pressure (11.1 +/- 7.9 mm Hg) also correlated well. Correlation was good both before and after BMV when subgrouping was done based on average pulmonary vascular resistance and average LA mean pressure in each group.


CONCLUSIONS
There is good correlation of PAW pressure with LA pressure even in the presence of pulmonary arterial or venous hypertension. It can replace LA pressure monitoring in any clinical setting.
Krishnamoorthy
K M
KM
Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Puttaparthi, AP, India.
Radhakrishnan
S
S
Shrivastava
S
S
D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination / Q000379:methods*; D002404:Catheterization; D002648:Child; D006325:Heart Atria; D006801:Humans; D006976:Hypertension, Pulmonary / Q000503:physiopathology; D016014:Linear Models; D008875:Middle Aged; D008943:Mitral Valve / Q000503:physiopathology; D008946:Mitral Valve Stenosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery; D011669:Pulmonary Wedge Pressure