Margarida Maia, PhD, science writer —

Members from two families with diagnosed or suspected pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) each carried two copies of mutations that map to the CAPNS1 gene and are likely rare causes of the disease, according to a study. The study, “Biallelic variants in the calpain regulatory subunit CAPNS1 cause pulmonary…

More than half of people with pulmonary hypertension (PH) may experience symptoms during sexual activity, such as difficulty breathing (dyspnea), heart palpitations, and chest pain, a small study found. However, around 2 in 3 patients don’t consider it important to bring up the topic of sexuality to their…

Certain genes are differentially expressed, meaning they have different activity, in people with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) whose right side of the heart fails to work as it should, a study found. Researchers believe that those genes, generally involved in regulating the electrical properties of the heart’s muscle cells,…

About 1 in 4 people with pulmonary hypertension (PH) have right ventricle (RV) energy failure — when one of the heart’s lower chambers fails to provide enough energy to push blood to the lungs — a Turkish study found. Researchers also observed that people with RV energy failure were…

A new game-style app aims to help doctors and medical imaging technicians learn to better identify signs of pulmonary hypertension (PH) on an echocardiogram, an ultrasound image of the heart. Called EchoRight Pro and developed by Janssen, the free app is available from Apple’s App Store…

Children with pulmonary hypertension (PH) may experience a wide range of side effects from medications being used off label, and such reactions may differ from those affecting adults, a survey study found. “Further research is needed to better understand the clinical implications of these side effects,” the researchers wrote,…

People with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) may lack some key vitamins and minerals their bodies need daily to stay healthy, which may lessen their vitality, according to a small study from the Netherlands. Besides the known lack of vitamin D and iron, researchers observed lower than recommended levels of…

Treatment with Adcirca (tadalafil) or Revatio (sildenafil) may help patients who develop pulmonary hypertension secondary to an interstitial lung disease to live longer, according to a new study from the U.K. “Patients treated with [these therapies] survived longer than untreated patients,” the researchers wrote, noting a median survival of…

Less oxygen uptake during exercise increases the risk of clinical worsening in people with pulmonary hypertension (PH) due to a heart defect called pulmonary artery stenosis (PAS), a study shows. Data also showed the chance of recovery was generally poor for this subgroup of patients and it was common…

A new study has found that there are nine metabolites — molecules that take part in metabolism — in the blood that can tell pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) linked to systemic sclerosis from idiopathic PAH, the label given when the disease is due to an unknown cause. Researchers also…

Preterm babies who grow with too little amniotic fluid (also called waters), or are born too small for their age, are at greater risk of developing pulmonary hypertension in the first two weeks of life, a meta-analysis study found. Babies with early pulmonary hypertension (PH) were more likely to…

When done during pregnancy, an echocardiogram — a noninvasive measurement of heart function that uses sound waves — may help doctors predict pulmonary hypertension in newborns, a study in China suggests. An echocardiogram can show how well the heart’s right ventricle, one of its bottom pumping chambers, will push…