Relation between pulmonary venous flow and pulmonary wedge pressure: influence of cardiac output

Multiple factors affect the systolic and diastolic components of pulmonary venous flow. It has been suggested that left ventricular function might influence the effects of filling pressures on indexes of pulmonary venous flow. The present study was designed to evaluate the effect of the pulmonary wedge pressures, left ventricular function, and cardiac output on the pulmonary vein flow pattern. Forty-five patients undergoing cardiac surgery were included in this study. Pulmonary venous flow and mitral flow variables were obtained by transesophageal echocardiography with hemodynamic variables obtained simultaneously. In the total group, there was no consistent relation between the pulmonary venous flow or the mitral flow parameters and the capillary wedge pressures. When patients were grouped according to normal (> 2.2 L/min/m2) or low (< 2.2 L/min/m2) cardiac index, a significant and positive relation was found between the systolic component of the pulmonary venous flow and the pulmonary wedge pressure in patients with normal cardiac index (r = 0.69; p = 0.003). Conversely, in patients with low cardiac index there was also a significant although negative correlation between the systolic velocity integral and the pulmonary wedge pressure (r = -0.58; p < 0.001). In conclusion, the systolic component of the pulmonary venous flow correlates closely and significantly with the capillary wedge pressures. The direction of this relation depends to a large extent on the total cardiac output and to a lesser extent on the left ventricular systolic function as assessed by the ejection fraction.