Direct measurement of left heart pressures usually requires puncture of a cardiac chamber and carries a considerably greater risk than right heart catheterization.
The technique of venous catheterization gives only indirect information about lesions of the left side of the heart. Analysis of mitral valve disease was made possible by the discovery that a venous pressure pulse could be obtained from a catheter wedged in a peripheral pulmonary artery (Lagerlof and Werko, 1949; Hellems et al., 1949). The form of the arterial pulse has been used for the indirect evaluation of aortic valve disease (Hancock and Abelman, 1957; Wood, 1958), and in recent years several techniques for direct measurement of left heart pressures have been introduced. Puncture of a cardiac chamber is usually necessary, and the risk of these methods is considerably greater than that of the right heart catheterization.
Hamer et al. (Mon,) conducted a review in Lesions of the left side of the heart. Direct measurement of left heart pressures vs. Right heart catheterization was evaluated. Direct measurement of left heart pressures usually requires puncture of a cardiac chamber and carries a considerably greater risk than right heart catheterization.
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