Pulmonary Hypertension Due to Valvular Heart Disease: Aortic and Mitral

Abstract

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) can be due to a primary pulmonary vasculature abnormality, but is more often secondary to lung, cardiac, or environmental insults, and is frequently multifactorial. Most commonly, left heart disease is at fault, a subset of which is valvular heart disease (VHD). With sufficient time, most chronic left-sided valve lesions will result in some element of PH. Long-standing PH causes pulmonary vascular remodeling and progressive PH due to reduced vascular compliance. Careful monitoring of VHD progression is critical, both through screening imaging and patient education, in order to properly time intervention to prevent the development or worsening of PH. The primary diagnostic tool in PH due to VHD is echocardiography, while invasive hemodynamic evaluation can be helpful to determine PH etiology or severity when echocardiography is not adequate. The presence of PH in VHD is often an indication for intervention, but it also increases procedural risk. Severe PH, however, has not been proven to preclude safe intervention, but rather should prompt full preprocedural evaluation and close intra- and postprocedural monitoring. Valve replacement or repair can be viewed as a treatment for PH secondary to the valvular lesion. Percutaneous alternatives to surgical interventions are available for some mitral and aortic valve conditions. Though in relatively early stages of development, these less invasive procedures may improve the safety profile of valve interventions. Pulmonary hypertension that fails to improve after intervention should raise suspicion for procedural failure or underlying pulmonary vascular disease (either precapillary possibly in association with interstitial lung disease or scleroderma or secondary to combined pre-/postcapillary PH due to long-standing pulmonary venous hypertension). This review is focused on the pathophysiology, treatment options, and outcomes in patients with PH due to mitral and aortic valve lesions.