Elevated pulmonary capillary wedge pressure increases right ventricular pulsatile loading, which may contribute to right ventricular dysfunction in the context of a fixed pulmonary artery resistance-compliance relationship.
Pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary fibrosis do not significantly change the hyperbolic dependence between R(PA) and C(PA), and patient age has only minimal effects. This fixed relationship helps explain the difficulty of reducing total right ventricular afterload by therapies that have a modest impact on mean R(PA). Higher pulmonary capillary wedge pressure appears to enhance net right ventricular afterload by elevating pulsatile, relative to resistive, load and may contribute to right ventricular dysfunction.
Tedford et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: