Brain measures tied to atrial pressure in valvular heart Dz

(HealthDay)—For patients with chronic valvular heart disease, white matter hyperintensity (WMH) volume is associated with mean right atrial (RA) pressure, according to a study published online Nov. 6 in JAMA Neurology.

Woo-Jin Lee, M.D., from Seoul National University Hospital in South Korea, and colleagues examined the correlation between chronically altered cardiac hemodynamics and severity of cerebral WMH in 303 patients diagnosed with severe chronic valvular heart disease. Two hundred thirty-two patients were included in the final analyses.

The researchers found that 63.4 percent of patients were classified as having a disease involving the mitral valve; 40.1 percent, the aortic valve; 15.9 percent, the tricuspid valve; and 1.7 percent, the pulmonary valve. WMH volume was linearly associated with mean RA pressure (B coefficient, 0.702; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.373 to 1.031; P = 0.001) along with age (B coefficient, 0.145; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.029 to 0.261; P = 0.01) and mean aortic pressure (B coefficient, 0.112; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.034 to 0.19; P = 0.005) after adjustment for the type and mechanism of valve disease and clinical, echocardiographic, and/or other catheterization parameters.

"Mean RA pressure was independently associated with the WMH volume in chronic valvular heart disease," the authors write.

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