Levels of exhaled nitric oxide before and after surgical and transcatheter device closure of atrial septal defects in children.

Objectives: We have shown that exhaled nitric oxide levels decrease after surgical closure of congenital left-to-right cardiac shunts. It remains unclear whether the change in exhaled nitric oxide levels reflects endothelial injury caused by the use of cardiopulmonary bypass or the decrease in pulmonary blood flow attendant on shunt closure. Transcatheter atrial septal defect closure permits shunt closure without the use of cardiopulmonary bypass. Therefore we compared changes in exhaled nitric oxide levels after surgical and transcatheter device closure of atrial septal defects.

Methods: We enrolled sequentially 30 children undergoing atrial septal defect closure. Fifteen patients (age range, 0.4-16 years; median age, 6.5 years) underwent surgical atrial septal defect closure with cardiopulmonary bypass, and 15 patients (age range, 4-17 years; median age, 8.4 years) had device closure of the atrial septal defect in the catheterization laboratory. We measured nitric oxide levels in end-tidal expiratory gas with a rapid-response chemiluminescent analyzer before and after atrial septal defect closure.

Results: After surgical repair of the atrial septal defect, exhaled nitric oxide decreased by 21%, from 10.9 +/- 4.4 to 8.4 +/- 3.3 ppb (P <.005), whereas after transcatheter defect closure, exhaled nitric oxide increased by 23%, from 7.6 +/- 2.6 to 9.3 +/- 3.7 ppb (P <.005). Hemoglobin levels in patients undergoing surgical intervention were significantly lower (P =.0001) postoperatively.

Conclusions: We confirmed that exhaled nitric oxide, despite a fall in hemoglobin, decreases after surgical closure of atrial septal defects. In contrast, exhaled nitric oxide levels increase after transcatheter closure. Exhaled nitric oxide levels may reflect bypass-induced endothelial cell injury and are independent of changes in pulmonary blood flow.