Balloons inserted into the heart can be used to treat diseased valves that cause congestive heart failure in people who are too old or sick to undergo surgery, Harvard researchers announced yesterday.

The technique, called balloon valvuloplasty, has been shown to be effective in opening up heart valves that are narrowed by scarring or calcium buildups. A similar procedure, called balloon angioplasty, is often used to clean out clogged arteries.

Balloon Therapy

The doctors say that new technique will be used primarily on patients who are so old or unhealthy that open-heart surgery to replace the faulty valves would be too risky.

A report on use of the balloon therapy by doctors at the Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Hospital was published in the July issue of the journal Circulation.

Doctors at the hospital have treated 34 patients with the technique. Although 31 of them were helped, three elderly patients died following the procedure.

"We've had several patients in whom the symptoms of heart failure disappeared following treatment and have remained absent since," said Dr. William Grossman, one of the researchers.

The standard treatment for disease heart valves is to perform open-heart surgery and replace the valve with an artificial valve or a pig valve. About 20,000 implantations are done each year.

With the new procedure, doctors insert a catheter into an artery in the patient's arm or leg. The catheter is pushed through the circulatory system to the heart. When it reaches the diseased valve, a balloon on the tip of the catheter is inflated. Once it's successfully opened the valve, the balloon is deflated and removed.