PCWP meaning in Medical ?

The pulmonary wedge pressure (PWP), also called pulmonary arterial wedge pressure (PAWP), pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP), pulmonary artery occlusion pressure (PAOP), or cross-sectional pressure, is the pressure measured by wedging a pulmonary catheter with an inflated balloon into a small pulmonary arterial branch. It estimates the left atrial pressure.

Pulmonary venous wedge pressure (PVWP) is not synonymous with the above; PVWP has been shown to correlate with pulmonary artery pressures in studies, albeit unreliably.

Physiologically, distinctions can be drawn among pulmonary artery pressure, pulmonary capillary wedge pressure, pulmonary venous pressure and left atrial pressure, but not all of these can be measured in a clinical context.

Noninvasive estimation techniques have been proposed.