ABSTRACT
This study aimed to evaluate the closure pattern of atrial septal defect [ASD] developed during percutaneous balloon mitral valvuloplasty [PBMV] at one-year follow up using transesophageal echocardiography [TEE]. Seventy consecutive patients with mitral stenosis [MS] who underwent PBMV were studied prospectively. ASD associated with left to right [L-R] atrial shunting occurred in all patients after PBMV. Forty patients were presented at one year after PBMV. A spontaneous closure of the ASD occurred in 34 patients, while it was persistent in six patients. ASD was present outside the fossa ovalis [FO] in all the six patients with ASD persistence. Large left atrial diameter [LAD], high total echo score of the mitral valve [MV], less MV mobility, more MV thickening, more MV calcification, more subvalvular thickening of the MV apparatus, thick inter-atrial septum [IAS] at its thinnest part [FO], thick IAS at its thickest part [limbus] and ASD site outside the FO were the risk factors for ASD persistence