Pulmonary arterial pressure: a look into the future

Background Pulmonary Hypertensive (PH) is an incurable , and often fatal disease. Currently a patient’s treatment requires periodic office visits to evaluate their progression of right heart failure and increased pulmonary arterial pressures associated with this disease. Invasive and serial right heart catherization (RHC) is the current accepted method for assessing pulmonary arterial pressures and objectively tracking a patient over time. There is an obligate morbidity and mortality associated with serial RHC’s. Further, with an estimated >1000 new diagnoses yearly and their requirement for serial RHC’s, a novel approach to measuring pulmonary arterial pressures that might have added utility beyond a simple manometer is warranted.