Functional echocardiographic and serum biomarker changes following surgical and percutaneous atrial septal defect closure in children

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Foundation. Main funding source(s): Dutch Heart Foundation Background Ventricular performance is temporarily reduced following surgical atrial septal defect (ASD) closure. Cardiopulmonary bypass and changes in loading conditions are considered important factors, but this phenomenon is incompletely understood. We aim to characterize biventricular performance following surgical and percutaneous ASD closure and to relate biomarkers to ventricular performance following intervention. Methods In this multicenter prospective study, children scheduled for surgical or percutaneous ASD closure were included. Subjects were assessed pre-operatively (T1); in the 2nd week post-intervention (T2) and 1 year post-intervention (T3). At each time point an echocardiographic study and a panel of biomarkers was obtained. Results Sixty-three patients (age 4.1 [3.1–6.1] years) were included. Forty-three patients underwent surgery. At T2 right ventricular (RV) global longitudinal strain (GLS) was decreased for the surgical, but not the percutaneous, group (-17.6 ± 4.1 versus -27.1 ± 3.4, p<.001). A smaller decrease was noted for left ventricular (LV) GLS at T2 for the surgical group (surgical -18.6 ± 3.2 versus percutaneous -20.2 ± 2.4, p=.040). At T3 LV performance returned to baseline, while RV performance improved, but did not reach pre-intervention levels. Cadherin-5, chitotriosidase-1, integrin-beta-2 and urokinase differed across time points and related to favorable RV GLS at T2. Conclusions Right, and to a lesser degree left, ventricular performance was reduced early after surgical ASD closure, possibly related to cardiopulmonary bypass. RV performance at T3 remained below baseline levels, probably related to changed loading conditions. Several biomarkers showed a pattern over time similar to ventricular performance and related to cardiac function at early follow-up. These markers may provide insight into the processes that affect ventricular function.