High Pulmonary Blood Pressure is a Life-Threatening Disease

Abdi İbrahim Medical Directorate warns that pulmonary hypertension (PAH) caused by narrowing of small arteries and arterioles and increased resistance in the vessels can cause heart failure and death unless treated.

In the statement made by Abdi İbrahim Medical Directorate on May 5, World Pulmonary Hypertension Day, in order to raise awareness about the disease, also known as pulmonary hypertension, PAH is a rare, progressive, life-threatening heart failure that prevents blood and oxygen flow to the heart. disease is emphasized.

In the statement made by ABDİ İbrahim Medical Directorate, it was stated that the basis of pulmonary hypertension disease was the high pressure caused by the disruptions in the vein in which the blood sent from the heart to the lung to be cleansed. In the statement, it was noted that although the data on the incidence rates from country to country and even from region to region vary widely, the disease has a new case rate of 15-25 per million and a death rate of 15 percent. It was also pointed out that the disease is seen 4 times more frequently in women than in men.

Pulmonary hypertension, which can progress in the early period without any signs or symptoms, is a non-contagious, life-threatening disease with certain inherited aspects. The awareness of both patients and their relatives in this disease, which makes daily life difficult as it progresses and needs to be followed closely, is of great importance in the process of coping with the disease.

The most common symptom (seen in 86%) in patients is shortness of breath. Prolonged fatigue and fatigue, chest pain, edema (swelling), dizziness or fainting, and palpitations are other common symptoms of the disease. It was pointed out that the patients could receive different diagnoses and treatments because the findings were non-specific complaints such as shortness of breath, palpitations and fatigue, and the disease could be in a more advanced stage when the final diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension was made. In the statement, it was stated that pulmonary hypertension can affect many organs.

“Hopeful development with disease; use of specific drugs "

The following information about the diagnosis and treatment of the disease was also included in the statement: “PAH can only be detected by echocardiography or right heart angiography, while high blood pressure measured with a blood pressure monitor is in question in systemic hypertension. With this measurement, if the pressure in the vein between the heart and lungs is detected higher than 25mmHg during rest, pulmonary hypertension is diagnosed. Pulmonary hypertension treatment is a disease that requires advanced expertise and a multi-disciplinary approach. There are drugs effective to stop the progression of PAH, which is a serious disease. In addition, clinical studies are carried out on the course and prevention of this disease. The severity, course and progression of each patient's disease is different. Early diagnosis and treatment is important to limit the progression of pulmonary hypertension. In the field of treatment, there have been positive developments in the last 20 years. While there was only treatment for symptoms before, nowadays, as the underlying causes of the disease are understood, molecules for this purpose have been found and with these new molecules, treatment results that increase the exercise capacity of the patients and reduce the hospitalization and mortality rates have been obtained. In the absence of specific drugs in this area, the average life expectancy of patients after diagnosis was 2,8 years, while the average life expectancy after diagnosis has extended to 20 years with innovative treatments in this area in the last 9 years.

Pulmonary Hypertension disease and its types

Pulmonary Hypertension disease; Pulmonary hypertension is classified under 5 main groups within the framework of its physiopathological mechanisms, histopathological features, clinical findings and treatments. These;

1. Group: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH),
2. Group: PH due to left heart diseases,
3. Group: PH due to lung diseases and / or hypoxia
4. Group: Chronic thromboembolic PH,
5. Group: PH caused by uncertain or multi-factor mechanisms.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a subgroup of pulmonary hypertension that reduces blood flow and increases pressure in the arteries between the heart and lungs without underlying lung or left heart disease. A small number of patients may develop PAH without an underlying condition, called idiopathic PAH. Besides; There are types of PAH associated with diseases (congenital heart diseases, connective tissue diseases, HIV infection, portal hypertension, schistosomiasis), and inherited types of PAH associated with drug-drug use.