IABP: Early Deflation

This shows the arterial tracing of Early Deflation of an IABP

Early Deflation of an IABP not only gives reduced diastolic flow augmentation, but can be dangerous as, if deflation is early enough, it can induce retrograde blood flow in the coronary arteries.

The illustration to the left shows the early - before end diastole - deflation of the IABP with consequent rise in the systolic pressure of the following now not as well augmented beat which no longer benefits from afterload reduction.

You will recall that with proper timing of the IABP the unassisted, native, systolic pressure is higher than that of augmented beats because balloon deflation immediately prior to systole reduces impedance to injection on the (previous) assisted beat resulting in a lower peak pressure, and lower LV wall tension.

A normal IABP pressure trace is shown in the inset to the right.