the frequency and importance of chest pain in midterm follow up of transcatheter closure of interatrial septal defect

Introduction: we evaluated chest pain alongside other midterm subjective and objective complications of the transcatheter closure of atrial septal defects (asds) and patent foramen ovales (pfos) with various closure devices. methods: this cross-sectional study, performed from march 2010 to october 2015 in rajaie cardiovascular, medical, and research center, evaluated 313 patients (mean age = 29.12 ± 10 years, 32.9% male) for probable complications associated with the transcatheter occlusion of secundum asds (n = 289, mean age = 30.5 ± 11.4 years, 28% male) or pfos (n = 24, mean age = 42.8 ± 10.2 years). asd closure was performed under sedation and transesophageal echocardiography (tee) guidance. duration of follow-up was 12 ± 3 months (mean follow-up = 11.52 months). results: among the subjective complications, chest pain was the most frequent complaint during the follow-up period and although it was common (7.3%), a clear cardiac etiology was rare. thirteen (4.2%) patients reported palpitation during the follow-up period, and 4 had documented arrhythmias—including atrial flutter, atrial fibrillation, and 2:1 atrioventricular block. migraine with or without aura occurred in 1.6% of the patients. objective complications comprising tamponade, device embolization, and thrombus formation occurred in 6 (1.9%) patients. there was no procedure-related mortality in our patients. conclusion: transcatheter closure of pfos and secundum-type asds in our adult patients using asd septal occluders was associated with a high degree of success, minimal procedural subjective and objective complication rates, and excellent short- and midterm results. although chest pain was common after the first month following asd closure, there was no cardiac death or aortic erosion in 11.52 months follow up.