Echocardiographic and Hemodynamic Effects of Intraaortic Balloon Pump in Patients with Cardiogenic Shock on Veno-Arterial Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation

We investigated echocardiographic and hemodynamic effects of intraaortic balloon pump (IABP) in 26 patients with cardiogenic shock on veno-arterial membrane oxygenation (VA ECMO). Our study demonstrated an 8.1% increase in left ventricular velocity time integral (<i>p</i> = 0.023) without reduction in left ventricular diameters and 4.7% decrease in right ventricular end diastolic base diameter (<i>p</i> = 0.05) when using IABP 1:1 mode compared to no augmentation. This was associated with a 3.2% decrease in heart rate (<i>p</i> < 0.001) and a 3.0% increase in mixed venous oxygen saturation (<i>p</i> = 0.057). Since the magnitude of the documented favorable changes is rather small, the clinical relevance of concomitant IABP in patients with cardiogenic shock on VA ECMO remains questionable.