The Effects of Vasodilators in Pulmonary Hypertension

Vasodilators in pulmonary hypertension.

Effects of inhaled versus intravenous vasodilators in experimental pulmonary hypertension.

Inhaled nitric oxide (NO) causes selective pulmonary vasodilation and improves gas exchange in acute lung failure. In experimental pulmonary hypertension, we compared the influence of the aerosolized vasodilatory prostaglandins (PG) PGI2 and PGE1 on vascular tone and gas exchange to that of infused prostanoids (PGI2, PGE1) and inhaled NO. An increase of pulmonary artery pressure (Ppa) from 8 to...

Advances in Heart Failure The Effects of Vasodilators in Pulmonary Hypertension Pulmonary Vascular or Peripheral Vascular?

When primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH) was first described in the medical literature, it was characterized from a cardiac catheterization on a young woman who had an elevated pulmonary arterial pressure of unknown origin which, after the intravenous administration of acetylcholine, promptly fell.1 The sentinel description of this phenomenon led to the acceptance of PPH as a medical entity in...

The effects of vasodilators in pulmonary hypertension: pulmonary vascular or peripheral vascular?

When primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH) was first described in the medical literature, it was characterized from a cardiac catheterization on a young woman who had an elevated pulmonary arterial pressure of unknown origin which, after the intravenous administration of acetylcholine, promptly fell.1 The sentinel description of this phenomenon led to the acceptance of PPH as a medical entity in...

Vasodilators in the treatment of primary pulmonary hypertension.

The use of vasodilators to reduce vascular resistance is over a hundred years old. BALFOUR [1] recommends the use of nitrites as vascular stimulants "which dilate the peripheral vessels (arterioles) and so promote the flow blood". In the case of primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH), vaso-constriction is one of three factors that combine to increase resistance to blood flow through the lungs. Th...