A common questions that comes up in caring for patients with PAH is whether they should be prescribed blood thinners such as warfarin or Coumadin. The answer to this question is a bit complicated. … [Read more...]
Pregnancy and Pulmonary Hypertension Part 2
The literature has described the risk of pregnancy to the mother as very severe in patients with advanced PAH. Depending on how advanced the PAH, there may be a 50% to 80% chance of death. For patients with much milder PAH, the risks are much lower but still substantial. … [Read more...]
Is My Prognosis Worse If I Have Failed Oral Pulmonary Hypertension Therapy?
We recently received an interesting question from one of our readers. “If oral therapy is not effective and in less than a year of diagnosis I am already moving to inhaled, does this mean I will not have a chance at survival like a patient who does well with the initial pills?” … [Read more...]
PH Centers of Excellence
A large majority of the comments/questions we receive from our readers are requests for recommendations for a PAH expert close to home. This is a very important question that is very difficult to answer. Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a rare disease, community physicians may not know of any PH specialists in their area. … [Read more...]
Assessing The Right Ventricle
The right ventricle is the heart chamber that pumps blood without oxygen through the lungs via the pulmonary arteries. In patients with PAH, the right ventricle is perhaps the most important barometer or gauge of how things are going. … [Read more...]
