Long-Term Outcomes in Adult Patients With Pulmonary Hypertension After Percutaneous Closure of Atrial Septal Defects

BACKGROUND Pulmonary hypertension (PH), recently redefined as mean pulmonary arterial pressure >20 mm Hg (PH$_{20}$), may be observed in patients with atrial septal defects (ASD). We aimed to determine the effect of preprocedural PH$_{20}$ status on outcomes among patients undergoing ASD closure. METHODS Study population was selected from a retrospective registry of adult patients who underwent percutaneous ASD closure from 1998 to 2016 from a single center and had right heart catheterizations during the procedure. The clinical registry was linked to administrative databases to capture short- and long-term outcomes. RESULTS We included a total of 632 ASD closure patients of whom 359 (56.8%) had PH$_{20}$. The mean follow-up length was 7.6±4.6 years. Patients with PH$_{20}$ were older (mean age 56.5 versus 43.1 years, P<0.001) and a higher prevalence of comorbidities including hypertension (54.3% versus 21.6%, P<0.001) and diabetes (18.1% versus 5.9%, P