• Woochan Kwon, Jeong Hoon Yang, Taek Kyu Park, Sung A Chang, Dong Seop Jung, Young Seok Cho, Sung Mok Kim, Tae Jung Kim, Hye Yoon Park, Seung Hyuk Choi, and Duk Kyung Kim.
• Department of Cardiology, Heart Vascular Stroke Institute, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
• J. Korean Med. Sci. 2018 Jan 22; 33 (4): e24e24.

BackgroundThe treatment of choice for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) is pulmonary endarterectomy (PEA). However, not all patients are eligible for PEA, and some patients experience recurrence of pulmonary hypertension even after PEA.MethodsPatients who underwent balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA) between December 2015 and April 2017 were enrolled from the Samsung Medical Center CTEPH registry. Enrolled patients underwent right heart catheterization, echocardiography, and 6-minute walk distance (6MWD) at baseline, 4 and 24 weeks after their first BPA session. We compared clinical and hemodynamic parameters at the baseline and last BPA session.ResultsFifty-two BPA sessions were performed in 15 patients, six of whom had a history of PEA. BPA resulted in improvements in World Health Organization (WHO) functional class (2.9 ± 0.8 to 1.7 ± 0.6, P = 0.002), 6MWD (387.0 ± 86.4 to 453.4 ± 64.8 m, P = 0.01), tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (14.1 ± 3.6 to 15.6 ± 4.3 mm, P = 0.03) and hemodynamics, including a decline in mean pulmonary artery pressure (41.1 ± 13.1 to 32.1 ± 9.5 mmHg, P < 0.001) and in pulmonary vascular resistance (607.4 ± 452.3 to 406.7 ± 265.4 dyne.sec.cm⁻⁵, P = 0.01) but not in cardiac index (2.94 ± 0.79 to 2.96 ± 0.93 L/min/m², P = 0.92). Six cases of complications were recorded, including two cases of reperfusion injury.ConclusionBPA might be a safe and effective treatment strategy for both inoperable CTEPH patients and patients with residual pulmonary hypertension after PEA.© 2018 The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences.

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