Article Text
Abstract
Balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA) is an emerging treatment for inoperable chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) or residual/recurrent pulmonary hypertension after pulmonary thromboendarterectomy. We report two patients with inoperable and severe CTEPH who were submitted to the BPA programme after optimised treatment with long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) and pulmonary vasodilator drugs, including prostacyclin analogues. They experienced a significant improvement in exercise capacity, oxygenation, right ventricular function and pulmonary haemodynamics. This improvement allowed withdrawal from LTOT and prostacyclin analogues therapies and, consequently, improved patients’ quality of life and reduced future health-related costs. The reported clinical cases intend to highlight the effectiveness of BPA in patients with inoperable CTEPH for whom the only available therapy was, until recently, the pulmonary vasodilator drugs.
- pulmonary embolism
- pulmonary hypertension
- interventional cardiology
- interventional radiology
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Footnotes
Contributors ARP was responsible for drafting the manuscript; RC was the main operator of the percutaneous procedures and revised the manuscript; FF belongs to the pulmonary hypertension group and was responsible for revising the manuscript; HP is the head of department and finally approved the manuscript submitted.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Case reports provide a valuable learning resource for the scientific community and can indicate areas of interest for future research. They should not be used in isolation to guide treatment choices or public health policy.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.