In May 2015, a retired Marine, minister, teacher, truck driver, and fire fighter, Don Stevenson a.k.a. “The Pacing Parson,” challenged himself to walk 3,000 miles from Auburn to Silver Springs, Md., all for the sake of raising funds and awareness for pulmonary hypertension — a fatal cardiopulmonary disease. Covering about 25-30 miles…
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A research journal recently reviewed the use of balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA), a new option for people with inoperable chronic thromboembolic pulmonary arterial hypertension. The work, titled “Balloon pulmonary angioplasty for inoperable chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension“ appeared in the July 7, 2015 issue of…
Researchers at Skåne University Hospital and Lund University in Sweden recently reported new insights into the respiratory and cardiovascular hemodynamics in heart failure patients, prior to and after heart transplant, both at rest and during exercise. The study was published in the Journal of the…
Northwestern Medicine has appointed Dr. Stuart Rich as director of the newly launched Pulmonary Vascular Disease Program at the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute, where he will also serve as professor of medicine-cardiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Rich, an accomplished innovator in the field of pulmonary hypertension, brings over…
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 recently published in the journal Circulation Research revealed encouraging results in the world’s first clinical trial using a genetically-enhanced stem cell therapy for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The study is entitled “Endothelial NO-Synthase Gene-Enhanced Progenitor Cell Therapy for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: the…
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…
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and the Medical University of South Carolina recently signed a translational research partnership that will focus on fibrotic diseases, such as scleroderma, renal fibrosis, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. This collaboration will also cover studies developed to further explore the disease mechanism of fibrosis, patient segmentation, and their…
Revised international treatment guidelines for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) suggest use of OFEV (nintedanib), a proprietary drug from Ingelheim, Germany, based Boehringer Ingelheim Corporation for the treatment of the disease. This newly-added recommendation places high value on potential benefits of OFEV on patient-important outcomes such as slowing of disease…
UK Patients at risk of developing venous thromboembolism (VTE), which includes thrombi and embolisms in the legs (deep vein thrombosis) and lungs (pulmonary embolism), may soon have the opportunity to gain access to a new treatment for the condition. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recently issued a Final…
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,…
A new imaging method that uses sound waves could help in assessing heart damage in people with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), according to a recent study that appeared June 26 in the Journal of Cardiovascular Ultrasound. PAH refers to high blood pressure of the lungs. It can…
