Marisa Wexler, MS,  senior science writer—

The amount of normal-looking lung tissue visible on CT scans of the chest can help to predict survival outcomes and response to treatment in people with pulmonary hypertension (PH), a study found. The study, “Significance of normal lung volume on quantitative computed tomography analysis in Group…

Chronic alcohol consumption damages the heart and blood vessels in ways that seem to set the stage for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), according to a study in male rats. These findings “yield new insight into the adverse effect of ethanol on cardiopulmonary [heart and lung] health, providing a foundation…

A noninvasive intervention that makes use of ultrasound to target the splenic nerve — a nerve in the spleen, an organ in which immune cells develop — was found to reduce inflammation and the severity of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in rat models of the disease, according to a…

The American Kidney Fund (AKF) has awarded an early-career fellowship that will support new research aiming to understand how pulmonary hypertension (PH) develops in people with chronic kidney disease. The project will be led by Marcelle Tuttle, MD, a first-year fellow at the Tufts Medical Center division of…

Inhibikase Therapeutics is meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) April 5 to discuss the potential of its experimental formulation of imatinib, dubbed IkT-001Pro, for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). “Following our … discussion with the FDA related to the path to approval for IkT-001Pro in up…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the under-the-skin injection therapy sotatercept-csrk — to be marketed under the brand name Winrevair — to treat adults with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The now-approved treatment is expected to be available for dispensing by select U.S. specialty pharmacies by the…

An inflammatory protein called CIRP may serve as a marker of pulmonary hypertension (PH) in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a chronic inflammatory disease of the lungs, a new study shows. “Our study reveals elevated expression of [extracellular] CIRP in the lung tissue and [blood] of…

After a diagnosis of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), rapidly starting treatment with a combination of therapies — both an endothelin receptor antagonist (ERA) and a phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor (PDE5i) — can lead to notable short-term improvements in heart health and physical function. That’s according to a new…

In people with pulmonary hypertension (PH), the endothelial cells that line the inside of blood vessels in the lungs take on features that are similar to what’s seen in some cancers, a new study found. The researchers who uncovered these features in these hard-to-access cells noted that they may…

People with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) related to use of methamphetamine — a potent stimulant only legally available by prescription — tend to have worse heart health and poorer exercise capacity compared with patients with other forms of PAH. That’s according to a new study, “Methamphetamine-associated…

A protein called SPHK2 helps to drive pulmonary hypertension (PH) by changing the epigenetic profiles of cells in blood vessels, a study reports. Epigenetics refers to changes in gene activity that do not change the genetic code itself. As such, study findings imply that blocking SPHK2 or otherwise reversing…

The Phase 2b portion of the IMPAHCT clinical trial, which is testing multiple doses of the inhaled imatinib formulation AV-101 against a placebo in adults with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), has finished enrollment. Top-line results are expected in June 2024, according to AV-101’s developer, Aerovate Therapeutics. “The completion…