Inferior vena cava occlusion catheter for pediatric patients with heart disease: for more detailed cardiovascular assessments.

Traditional evaluation of cardiac function is too often limited by reliance on measurements with complex interdependence between cardiac properties and loading factors. Analysis by ventricular pressure-volume (P-V), -area (P-A), or -dimension (P-D) relations during inferior vena caval (IVC) occlusion independently quantifies ventricular properties and loading conditions, providing detailed information about cardiovascular dynamics. However, there has been no appropriate size of balloon catheter that can effectively occlude IVC of pediatric patients, hindering the application of P-V (P-A, or P-D) analysis to children with heart disease despite its potential benefit. To address this problem, we have developed a new balloon catheter for IVC occlusion in children. The catheter effectively occluded IVC in 92 pediatric patients with varying forms of heart disease who underwent cardiac catheterization, yielding end-systolic pressure-area relations. Thus a newly developed balloon catheter would contribute to establishing more accurate and detailed cardiovascular assessments in children with heart disease. Cathet Cardiovasc Intervent 2001;53:392-396. Copyright 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.