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The Food and Drug Administration clarified its previous recommendation related to prescribing Revatio (sildenafil; Pfizer) for children with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), the Monthly Prescribing Reference reports. In August 2012, the FDA revised the Revatio drug label and warned that the use of the drug, particularly for chronic…

Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) is a rare condition characterized by increased pressure and constriction of the pulmonary arteries and the surrounding veins, which in turn applies excess pressure to the right side of the heart. It is a progressive condition that worsens with time if left untreated. The…

According to Lisa Wheeler, a research coordinator at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, other health conditions underlying pulmonary hypertension (PH) can actually cause more deaths than the lung disease in critically ill patients.  This finding necessitates a new direction in the care of subgroups of PH in intensive care…

A novel concept of targeting the autonomic nervous system around pulmonary arteries and activation of vasointestinal peptides (VIP) to treat Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (IPAH) was recently developed by a group of researchers. The study, published in the online journal Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management (March 27, 2014), profiled a 58…

Rensselaer, New York-based biopharmaceutical company Pulmokine recently made a major announcement regarding the company’s efforts in developing a novel therapy for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). In a press release from late March, Pulmokine indicated that that the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), a division of the federally run National…

Sickle Cell disease (SCD) is one of the most prevalent genetic diseases worldwide. It is a type of anemia characterized by the hemoglobin variant hemoglobin S (HbS), which causes rigidity in red cells and “sickling.” This sickling changes their shape, resulting in a number of life-long complications for patients with…

Today, four million Americans live with a chronic autoimmune disease known as Sjögren’s Syndrome (SS). The condition causes mucous membranes and other glands to function improperly, triggering a series of complications in several organs. According to a recent study, one of these complications is the onset of pulmonary…

Adriano Tonelli and colleagues at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio have found a number of electrocardiography (ECG) variables that evolve between diagnosis and death in individuals with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) that warrant further investigation.  Currently, the medical community does not recommend an ECG for PAH diagnosis. Fifty…

Among the fives types of PH, Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) is recognized as a serious unmet medical need in terms of viable treatments, due to the progressive and life-threatening characteristics of the disease.  PAH patients experience symptoms where blood pressure in the pulmonary arteries is significantly heightened due to vasoconstriction, frequently…