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The new guidelines for the management of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in adults published by The American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) is free to view in this month’s online issue of the journal CHEST for patients and clinicians alike. Full access to the study, entitled “Pharmacologic Therapy…

Forced vital capacity, or FVC, is defined as the amount of air that can be forcibly exhaled from the lungs after taking the deepest breath possible. Patients suffering from systemic sclerosis, or scleroderma (a chronic systemic autoimmune disease) often undergo this type of spirometry testing to assess their status of…

A team of over twenty researchers recently found that patients with systemic sclerosis are at high risk to develop pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The study, published in the Seminars in Arthritis & Rheumatism, set out to understand the natural history of pulmonary hypertension (PH) in systemic sclerosis (Ssc),…

Reata Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a privately held company located in Irving, Texas aiming to translate innovative research into breakthrough medicines for difficult-to-treat diseases that have significant unmet needs. Their approach specifically involves developing a novel class of drugs with potent transcriptional activity, called antioxidant inflammation modulators (AIMs), which can…

Ventripoint Diagnostics‘ VMS, a new heart visualization system for cardiac MRI and 3D ultrasounds, was recently deemed an accurate method by a German group of researchers, the company announced on Monday. According to information available on Ventripoint’s website, VMS was originally designed for congenital heart disease, with subsequent…

Bellerophon Therapeutics, a biotherapeutics company working on a therapeutic treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension, announced yesterday that Jonathan Peacock has been appointed chairman and chief executive officer. A graduate in Economics from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, Peacock, who will replace Daniel Tassé in the role of chairman and…

Swiss biotech company Actelion Pharmaceuticals has launched Opsumit (macitentan) as a new treatment option for patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in England, where approximately 3,000 people receive disease-targeted drug therapy for the condition. This comes as significant news for Actelion, after the Institut National d’Excellence en Santé…

The Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Foundation – Quebec (HTAPQ) expressed its disappointment with the decision made by the Institut National d’Excellence en Santé et Services Sociaux (INESSS), which didn’t include Opsumit (macitentan) on the list of medications covered by Quebec’s public drug insurance plan. Opsumit is a prescription medicine used…

United Therapeutics Corporation paid Supernus Pharmaceuticals a $2 million milestone payment for the launch of United’s Orenitram Extended-Release Tablets for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in the United States. A form of pulmonary hypertension, PAH is caused by the abnormal functioning of pulmonary artetires, which carry blood…

Last week, during the annual meeting of the American Thoracic Society 2014, Jasmijn van Campen, MD, a staff pulmonologist at VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam gave an oral presentation on her recent work on treating idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension with beta blockers. “Despite the contraindications, beta blockers are prescribed for…

Researchers from the University of California, San Diego, presented a new study at the 2014 American Thoracic Society International Conference revealing the effects of pulmonary thromboendarterectomy (PTE) in patients with chronic pulmonary thromboembolic disease, suggesting a positive effect in patients’ conditions after the procedure. Daniel Crouch, MD, pulmonary and critical fellow…

Having less access to health care, pulmonary hypertension patients from lower socioeconomic status present a more advanced state of the disease at the time of initial evaluation, compared to higher socioeconomic groups. These are the results of a study conducted by Long Island Jewish School of Medicine researcher Jose…