The following is a summary of “Establishing a balloon pulmonary angioplasty program for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension: A United States single-center experience,” published in the MAY 2023 issue of Pulmonology by Carlozzi, et al.

When pulmonary thromboendarterectomy is not an option for a patient with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH), balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA) is a less invasive therapy option. For a study, researchers sought to describe a single-experience center with a developing BPA program in the United States (US).

The patients in the retrospective, single-center observational cohort who underwent BPA between August 2018 and 2021 were all. In addition, clinical data from before and after the procedure was gathered, together with procedural details.

In the course of the trial, 30 participants started their BPA series. (n = 25, 83.3%) Of the patients, the majority had a segmental illness. 417 segments underwent 135 BPA treatments in all. Patients underwent more than two sessions on average, with the majority (n = 23, 76.7%) finishing more than four. 20 procedural events required treatment, the majority of which involved balloon tamponade or heparin reversal, and there were 24 instances of hemoptysis. There was an improvement in mean PA pressure (−6 mmHg, 95% CI -9 to -4 mmHg, P = 0.0001), PVR (−1.9 Wood units, 95% CI –2.9 to −1.0, P = 0.0002), and pulmonary compliance (−1.0 mL/mmHg, 95% CI -1.5 to −0.5, P = 0.0002). Moreover, there was an improvement in the walk distance and NYHA functional classification (P = 0.01). One fatality happened peri-procedurally, making a total of two deaths.

The study discussed an early BPA experience at a single US site. Without significantly increasing the morbidity of an already high-risk patient population, non-invasive and invasive metrics improvements were observed.

Source: resmedjournal.com/article/S0954-6111(23)00103-8/fulltext