Pulmonary hypertension is defined as the rise of mean pressure in the pulmonary artery over 25 mmHg at rest or over 30 mmHg during activity with accompanying increase of pulmonary vascular resistance over 3 WU (Wood's unit). According to the recent WHO classification from 2003 pulmonary hypertension can be categorized as pulmonary arterial hypertension, pulmonary venous hypertension, hypoxic pu...

INTRODUCTION Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a complication of systemic lupus erythematosus. Mortality in pregnant patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension related to connective tissue disease is as high as 56%. The authors report the first case of a successful maternal-fetal outcome in a pregnant patient with systemic lupus erythematosus-associated pulmonary arterial hypertension treat...

Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a major complication of systemic sclerosis. Although oxidative stress, intima hyperplasia and a progressive vessel occlusion appear to be clearly involved, the fine molecular mechanisms underpinning the onset and progression of systemic sclerosis-associated pulmonary arterial hypertension remain largely unknown. Here we shows for the first time that an increas...

In their paper on combined preand post-capillary pulmonary hypertension, Assad et al. say that ‘‘the resistance-compliance (RC) time has emerged as a measure of pulmonary vascular physiology that integrates the mean and pulsatile afterload of the right ventricle.’’ They discuss reports in the literature of changes in RC time in a variety of conditions. The findings in their study show that ‘‘th...

Arterial hypertension is not an independent risk factor in cardiovascular complications in noncardiac surgery. Nevertheless, preoperative evaluation is necessary and includes estimation of arterial hypertension grade and possible damage of target organs. In patients with first and second grade of arterial hypertension postponement of elective intervention is not necessary, only optimization of ...

External scintillation scanning of intravenously administered '31I-labeled macroaggregates of human serum albumin (1311-MAA) was employed to evaluate the distribution of pulmonary arterial blood flow in 61 normal subjects and in 100 patients with various congenital cardiovascular malformations. Intra-aortic administration of 131I-MAA demonstrated that blood flow through subelavian-pulmonary art...

A 20-year-old female diagnosed as idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension at 7 years of age was referred with worsening dyspnea and chest pain. Several imaging studies and right cardiac catheterization showed multiple stenoses in the peripheral pulmonary arteries with severe pulmonary hypertension and multiple systemic arterial stenoses lacking in systemic hypertension. No evidence of inflam...