The pulmonary capillary wedge pressure or PCWP (also called the pulmonary wedge pressure or PWP, or pulmonary artery occlusion pressure or PAOP) is the pressure measured by wedging a pulmonary catheter with an inflated balloon into a small pulmonary arterial branch.[1]
Physiologically, distinctions can be drawn among pulmonary venous pressure, pulmonary artery pressure, pulmonary capillary wedge pressure, and left atrial pressure, but not all of these can be measured in a clinical context.[2]
Noninvasive estimation techniques have been proposed.[3]
| Site | Normal pressure range (in mmHg)[4] |
|
|---|---|---|
| Central venous pressure | 3–8 | |
| Right ventricular pressure | systolic | 15–30 |
| diastolic | 3–8 | |
| Pulmonary artery pressure | systolic | 15–30 |
| diastolic | 4–12 | |
| Pulmonary vein/ Pulmonary capillary wedge pressure |
2–15 | |
| Left ventricular pressure | systolic | 100–140 |
| diastolic | 3-12 | |
Because of the large compliance of the pulmonary circulation, it provides an indirect measure of the left atrial pressure.[5]
For example, it is considered the gold standard for determining the cause of acute pulmonary edema; this is likely to be present at a PCWP of >20mmHg. It has also been used to diagnose severity of left ventricular failure and mitral stenosis,[6] given that elevated pulmonary capillary wedge pressure strongly suggests failure of left ventricular output.[7]
Calculating PCWP is also important in diagnosis of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
Physiological pressure: 6–12 mm Hg.[8]
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