Progressive improvement in pulmonary vascular resistance after percutaneous mitral valvuloplasty

Percutaneous mitral valvuloplasty has been proposed as a nonsurgical technique for treating high-risk patients with mitral stenosis who are deferred from mitral valve replacement. The effect of this technique on patients with pulmonary hypertension, however, has not been fully evaluated. Accordingly, serial assessment of pulmonary vascular resistance was made in 14 patients with critical mitral stenosis and pulmonary hypertension (pulmonary vascular resistance greater than 250 dynes.sec/cm5 or mean pulmonary artery pressure greater than 40 mm Hg or both) who underwent percutaneous balloon dilatation of the mitral valve. Balloon valvuloplasty was performed with either one (n = 10) or two (n = 4) balloons through the transseptal approach, and it resulted in significant improvement in mean mitral gradient (from 18 +/- 4 to 9 +/- 4 mm Hg, p less than 0.001), systemic blood flow (from 3.7 +/- 1.2 to 5.0 +/- 2.2 l/min, p less than 0.001), and calculated mitral valve area (from 0.7 +/- 0.2 to 1.6 +/- 0.7 cm2, p less than 0.001). Immediately after balloon mitral valvuloplasty, pulmonary vascular resistance fell from 630 +/- 570 to 447 +/- 324 dynes.sec/cm5. Repeat catheterization 7 +/- 4 months after valvuloplasty showed further improvement of pulmonary hypertension in 12 of the 14 patients, with a mean pulmonary vascular resistance for the group as a whole of 280 +/- 183 dynes.sec/cm5, p less than 0.005. In two patients, mitral valve restenosis to a mitral valve area less than 1.0 cm2 was associated with a return of pulmonary hypertension to predilatation values.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)