Margarida Maia, PhD, science writer —

Delays beyond one year in the diagnosis of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) lead to more hospitalizations, and this translates into higher healthcare costs per patient each month in the U.S., a real-world study found. Indeed, such extra costs per month were estimated at nearly $4,000 per patient after 12…

Babies with persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN) started quickly on treatment with prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) — which lowers blood pressure by allowing blood vessels to relax and open up — show a better working heart and a lesser need of extra oxygen, a study reports. “Importantly, the…

People with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) who have problems breathing while they’re sleeping — causing nocturnal hypoxemia, or oxygen levels in the blood to drop during the night — are nearly twice as likely as patients without such difficulty to experience clinical worsening, a study found. “The rate of…

The CorVista System, a point of care device that applies a machine learning algorithm to decode data, can predict the presence of pulmonary hypertension in patients with new-onset symptoms of cardiovascular disease, a study shows. The device’s algorithm performed about as well as transthoracic echocardiography, or TTE, a standard…

A heart transplant may resolve the pulmonary hypertension (PH) often found in children with heart failure — the organ’s inability to pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs, a small study found. After the transplant, however, it took longer for blood pressure to normalize in children with congenital…

Most adults with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) experience no worsening and may even see a reduction in the severity of their symptoms after being on treatment with Uptravi (selexipag) for up to about 1.5 years. That’s according to a new analysis of data from all patients who took…

The matrix around the heart’s cells does not shrink and may continue to undergo changes after pulmonary endarterectomy, or PEA, a surgery to remove blood clots from the pulmonary arteries that supply the lungs, a small study found. Researchers suggest that fibrosis, or scarring, may explain why the heart’s size…

The gene coding for insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) may be involved in both pulmonary hypertension (PH) and pulmonary fibrosis (PF), offering a potential target for treating both diseases, a study suggests. That’s important because for many people with both PH and PF, a lung transplant may be…

Engaging in inspiratory muscle training for eight weeks may help people with pulmonary hypertension (PH) strengthen their respiratory (breathing) muscles and gain exercise capacity, a study suggests. This is important because inspiratory (breathing in) muscle training may offer a non-invasive approach to improve the quality of life and overall…

The risk of mortality is nine times greater for people who have signs of pulmonary hypertension (PH) on an echocardiogram when they get COVID-19, than people without these signs, a study finds. The study, “Pulmonary hypertension predicts higher mortality in patients admitted with severe COVID-19 infection,” was published…

Roughly one in four people with idiopathic (of unknown cause) pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) also have diabetes, a disease that causes high blood glucose (sugar), a multi-center Polish study found. Having diabetes was linked to more advanced pulmonary vascular disease and worse survival, which held true even after accounting…

Switching to Orenitram, an oral formulation of treprostinil, appears safe and may benefit some patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) who are not responding well to Uptravi (selexipag) or are experiencing side effects from such treatment. That’s according to data from a small group of 10 patients who…