title: Balloon pulmonary angioplasty: an additional treatment option to improve the prognosis of patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the efficacy and safety of balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA) in patients with non-operable chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) using the results of pulmonary endarterectomy (PEA) for operable patients as a reference, and annotate the role of BPA in the management of CTEPH.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data from 53 CTEPH patients were collected retrospectively. Twenty-four operable patients underwent PEA, and 29 non-operable patients underwent BPA. Patients who underwent BPA showed improved mean pulmonary arterial pressure, pulmonary vascular resistance, and cardiac output (39.4±6.9 to 21.3±5.6 mmHg, 763±308 to 284±128 dyn·s-1·cm-5, 3.47±0.80 to 4.26±1.15 L/min, respectively); patients who received PEA showed similar efficacy (44.4±11.0 to 21.6±6.7 mmHg, 781±278 to 258±125 dyn·s-1·cm-5, 3.35±1.11 to 4.44±1.58 L/min, respectively). The mortality rates of BPA and PEA patients were 3.4% and 8.3%, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The efficacy and safety of BPA for non-operable cases were similar to those achieved using PEA for operable cases. BPA could be an additional treatment option for non-operable CTEPH patients, and most CTEPH patients can be satisfactorily treated by BPA or PEA.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Taniguchi
authors.forename: Kazuya
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Miyagawa
authors.forename: Kazuhiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakayama
authors.forename: Hiroto
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kinutani
authors.forename: Toshiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shinke
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okada
authors.forename: Yutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Okita
authors.forename: Ken-ich
authors.initials: KI
authors.lastname: Hirata
authors.forename: Noriaki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Emoto
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000800:Angioplasty, Balloon / Q000379:methods; D062186:Arterial Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004691:Endarterectomy / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006976:Hypertension, Pulmonary / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014655:Vascular Resistance / Q000502:physiology