Does pulmonary artery-wedge pressure accurately correlate with left atrial pressure in humans under various physiological conditions?
Pulmonary artery-wedge pressure strongly correlates with left atrial pressure, validating its use in calculating pulmonary vascular resistance.
The pulmonary artery-wedge and left atrial pressures were recorded simultaneously in 11 patients during a control state, during norepinephrine infusion, as well as during positive and negative intra-alveolar pressures. A good correlation (r = 0.95) found between the two pressures permits the use of corrected pulmonary artery-wedge pressure in calculation of pulmonary vascular resistance under control and test conditions.
Luchsinger et al. (1962) studied this question.