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Abstract Pulmonary endarterectomy (PEA) may not achieve full clearance of vascular obstructions in patients with more distal chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). Balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA) may be indicated to treat these residual vascular lesions. We compared whether patients post‐PEA (PP) treated by BPA derived similar benefit to those who had inoperable CTEPH (IC), and assessed predictors of BPA response after surgery. We treated 109 patients with BPA—89 with IC and 20 PP. Serial right heart catheterization performed at baseline (immediately before BPA) and 3 months after completing BPA, compared pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR), mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP) as well as change in WHO functional class and 6‐minute walk distance. We also assessed the impact of total thrombus tail length (TTTL) from photographed PEA surgical specimens and PP computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA)‐quantified residual disease burden on BPA response. PP and IC groups did not differ significantly in terms of demographics, baseline hemodynamics or procedural characteristics. However, IC derived greater hemodynamic benefit from BPA: ΔPVR (−27.9 ± 20.2% vs. −13.9 ± 23.9%, p

Abstract Acute lung injury (ALI) is a common but poorly defined and understood complication of balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA) for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). Little data are available on the medium term clinical outcomes of BPA complicated by ALI. We analyzed per‐procedure data from 282 procedures in 109 patients and per‐patient data from 85 patients. Serial right heart catheterization at baseline, after each BPA and at 3‐month follow‐up measured pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR), mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP), and cardiac output (CO). ALI (ALI+) was identified by chest radiography alone (ALIr+) or in association with hypoxia clinically (ALIcr+). Procedural predictors of ALI and patient outcomes at 3‐months were compared no ALI (ALI−). ALI+ occurred in 17/282 (6.0%) procedures (ALIcr+: 2.5%, ALIr+: 3.5%). Prevailing haemodynamics (PVR: p