News

Forced Vital Capacity Found To Be Inadequate When Assessing Scleroderma

Forced vital capacity, or FVC, is defined as the amount of air that can be forcibly exhaled from the lungs after taking the deepest breath possible. Patients suffering from systemic sclerosis, or scleroderma (a chronic systemic autoimmune disease) often undergo this type of spirometry testing to assess their status of…

Systemic Sclerosis Patients At Higher Risk To Develop PAH

A team of over twenty researchers recently found that patients with systemic sclerosis are at high risk to develop pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The study, published in the Seminars in Arthritis & Rheumatism, set out to understand the natural history of pulmonary hypertension (PH) in systemic sclerosis (Ssc),…

Experimental Therapy Targets Inflammation in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Reata Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a privately held company located in Irving, Texas aiming to translate innovative research into breakthrough medicines for difficult-to-treat diseases that have significant unmet needs. Their approach specifically involves developing a novel class of drugs with potent transcriptional activity, called antioxidant inflammation modulators (AIMs), which can…

Lung Disease Inadequately Assessed by FVC in PH-Scleroderma Patients

Patients with pulmonary hypertension secondary to scleroderma (also known as systemic sclerosis) may not be properly assessed for interstitial lung disease through forced vital capacity (FVC) alone, according to Dr. Elizabeth Volkmann, of the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Volkmann, a rheumatologist, spoke at the annual European Congress…

Subcutaneous Treprostinil Used to Treat PAH Infants

Although pulmonary hypertension and chronic lung disease are usually associated with adults, some cases develop in infancy. Dina Ferdman, MD, from Columbia University Medical Center, is finding a way to treat infant patients, who were premature and have severe pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and chronic lung disease, using…

Making Pulmonary Pressure Measurements Safer For PH Patients Using Ultrasound

A group of researchers from Flinders Medical Centre and Flinders University in Australia are working to make measuring pulmonary pressures safer for patients with pulmonary hypertension. Their study, published in Critical Ultrasound Journal,investigated the use of ultrasound-echocardiography for estimating mean pulmonary arterial pressure in critically ill patients. Although…

PAH Drug Developer Bellerophon Therapeutics Names Jonathan Peacock Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Bellerophon Therapeutics, a biotherapeutics company working on a therapeutic treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension, announced yesterday that Jonathan Peacock has been appointed chairman and chief executive officer. A graduate in Economics from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, Peacock, who will replace Daniel Tassé in the role of chairman and…