Bayer Announces Educational Website for Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension (CTEPH)

PatrĂ­cia Silva, PhD avatar

by PatrĂ­cia Silva, PhD |

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CTEPH may be genetic disease

Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension (CTEPH) has been identified as one of the major causes of acute pulmonary hypertension (PH). This condition is characterized by a progressively dangerous accumulation of blood clots within pulmonary vasculature, which leads to PH and can eventually cause right-sided heart failure. It is estimated that approximately 600,000 individuals develop severe PH annually, and about 500-2,500 people are diagnosed with CTEPH. Today, CTEPH remains an underdiagnosed leading cause of life-threatening PH.

Bayer HealthCare has officially set in motion an online medium of professional education for American doctors, focused on imparting critical information on Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension. Bayer’s new website, www.CTEPH.com, aims to promote professional awareness and understanding of the condition as well as disseminate protocol updates, disease management, and treatment options. The company teamed up with a panel of specialists on CTEPH in the process of creating the website and producing relevant content.

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According to Dr. William R. Auger, a professor of Clinical Medicine and director of research at the University of California’s Pulmonary Thromboendarterectomy Program, the website will prove to be quite beneficial for physicians as it fuses evidence-based updates and valuable professional input from experts. Those who visit the website will have access to the latest information on assessing, monitoring and managing CTEPH.

The director of the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Pulmonary Hypertension and Thromboemdarterectomy Program, Dr. Richard Channick, encounters a large volume of patients diagnosed with CTEPH and can vouch for the present-day need to raise awareness and understanding of this disease because he has witnessed how a lack of instruction on this dangerous form of PH can be detrimental to care offered to patients.

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One of the reasons why CTEPH remains underdiagnosed is because its signs and symptoms are difficult to differentiate from other types of PH. A correct and prompt diagnosis, however, can be resolved with pulmonary endarterectomy (PEA) after a thorough assessment by a specialized CTEPH team, in order to determine candidacy for the procedure.


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