Aspirated thrombus weight and volume are not associated with improvements in hemodynamics after large-bore mechanical thrombectomy in pulmonary embolism.

Authors

Felix Götzinger, Lucas Lauder, Patricia Perez Navarro, Michael Kunz, Mathias Wagner, Mert Tokcan, Jasper Boeddinghaus, Gregor Leibundgut, Michael Böhm, Andreas Link, Bruno Scheller, Felix Mahfoud

Published in

Clinical research in cardiology : official journal of the German Cardiac Society. Jul 30, 2026. Epub Jul 30, 2026.

Abstract

Large-bore mechanical thrombectomy (LBMT) is a catheter-directed therapy for acute pulmonary embolism (PE). The relationship between aspirated thrombus weight and volume with outcomes remains unclear.
The aim was to evaluate the impact of aspirated thrombus weight and volume on outcomes after LBMT.
This prospective, open-label, single-arm, single-center registry study included 48 patients undergoing LBMT using the FlowTriever system (Inari Medical/Stryker, Irvine, CA, USA). Thrombus weight and volume were quantified, and clot composition assessed. Associations between thrombus characteristics and clinical, invasive hemodynamics, echocardiographic parameters, and biomarkers were evaluated immediately after the procedure, at hospital discharge, and at 3-month follow-up.
Thrombus material was available in 48 patients (31% women), of which 41 presented with intermediate-risk and 7 with high-risk PE. LBMT resulted in significant reductions in systolic pulmonary artery pressures (sPAP) intraprocedurally (- 12.8 ± 8.3 mmHg, p < 0.001), with a further invasively measured decrease through 3 months (- 9.6 ± 10.6 mmHg, p < 0.001). From baseline to discharge, right ventricular coupling improved (+ 0.24, p < 0.001) and right ventricle (RV)/left ventricle (LV) ratio decreased (- 0.23, p < 0.001). NT-proBNP and high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T declined significantly. Neither thrombus weight nor volume correlated with acute changes in sPAP (ρ_volume = 0.06; ρ_weight = 0.10), RV-uncoupling (ρ_volume = 0.47; ρ_weight = 0.46), and RV/LV ratio (ρ_volume = - 0.02; ρ_weight = - 0.005) (p for all > 0.05), nor with outcomes at 3 months.
Aspirated thrombus weight and volume were not associated with improvements after LBMT, suggesting that, beyond mechanical obstruction, additional mechanisms potentially including paracrine and endocrine effects of thrombus material may contribute to acute and chronic PE-related cardiopulmonary dysfunction.

PMID:
42530609
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 30 Jul 2026.

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