Does a flow-directed balloon-tipped catheter allow for safe and rapid measurement of right heart and pulmonary capillary wedge pressures without fluoroscopy?
The introduction of the flow-directed balloon-tipped catheter allows for safe and rapid measurement of right heart and pulmonary capillary wedge pressures without the need for fluoroscopy.
Pressures in the right side of the heart and pulmonary capillary wedge can be obtained by cardiac catheterization without the aid of fluoroscopy. A No. 5 Fr double-lumen catheter with a balloon just proximal to the tip is inserted into the right atrium under pressure monitoring. The balloon is then inflated with 0.8 ml of air. The balloon is carried by blood flow through the right side of the heart into the smaller radicles of the pulmonary artery. In this position when the balloon is inflated wedge pressure is obtained. The average time for passage of the catheter from the right atrium to the pulmonary artery was 35 seconds in the first 100 passages. The frequency of premature beats was minimal, and no other arrhythmias occurred.
Swan et al. (1970) studied this question.
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