Author Archives: Maureen Newman

Obesity is a prevalent comorbidity of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), according to a recent study that examined the presence of metabolic syndrome in patients with PAH. In fact, a large body of research has examined obesity-related PAH. However, patients with both of…

In a world where vasodilators rule the landscape of treatments for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), scientific research groups and pharmaceutical companies around the world are working to develop targeted therapeutics that focus on specific cellular pathways that are associated with dysfunction in PAH patients. Within the realm of targeted therapeutics,…

Non-invasive techniques to detect pulmonary hypertension in individuals who are at a high risk for developing the disease are in high demand to enable more patients to be diagnosed and treated in the early stages. As the gold standard, right heart catheterization has been the primary mode of detecting an increase…

Research scientists at Bayer HealthCare AG in Germany are optimizing a new chemical inhibitor for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) treatment. The team of medicinal chemists generated a library of compounds centered around inhibiting human neutrophil elastase (HNE), a key driver of inflammation in PAH. After generating molecules that successfully inhibited…

The recent announcement of positive results for the AMBITION trial testing combinatorial ambrisentan and tadalafil in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is bringing more attention to the need to actively recruit participants for clinical trials. Without patients and clinicians interested in trying new treatments for a currently…

A variety of biomarkers are elevated in the serum of patients with systemic sclerosis-pulmonary arterial hypertension (SSc-PAH). Researchers have mostly been studying these markers to determine if they can be used to help diagnose SSc-PAH or if they can serve as targets for new treatments. Alternatively, a study from Northwestern…

Connective tissue diseases that largely affect bone, cartilage, and fat can sometimes be associated with pulmonary hypertension. Since not all patients with connective tissue disease will eventually develop pulmonary hypertension, it is important to be aware of how pulmonary hypertension can be found in the subset of affected patients. A…

A new study from University Medical Center Gronigen in The Netherlands, released on fast-track by the European Heart Journal, reports that a clinical trial treating pulmonary hypertension patients with sildenafil did not result in reduced pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) or haemodynamic parameters. These patients had preserved…

The amino acid arginine may contribute to pulmonary hypertension in patients with thalassemia, a disorder that leads to abnormal oxygenation of blood. A team of researchers from the Thalassemia Clinical Research Network conducted a study demonstrating that abnormal release of the enzyme arginase leads to a lack of bioavailable arginine,…

Patients with pulmonary hypertension may be surprised to know that the disease can sometimes be accompanied by the complication known as thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). Pulmonary embolisms are the root cause of CTEPH because a pulmonary embolism (a blood clot in the lungs) that fails to be degraded via thromboembolysis…

Uric acid is most often associated with gout in patients. However, a new study published in International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases found that patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) may be at an increased risk for pulmonary hypertension based on high uric acid levels. “A…

The inflammasome, which is a multi-protein complex that activates inflammatory processes, was shown to play a role in pulmonary hypertension according to a journal article from the Institute for Experimental Medical Research in Oslo University Hospital. Removing a key component of the inflammasome in mice predisposed to pulmonary hypertension were rescued…