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Regenerative cell therapy can induce significant improvements in key clinical features of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in animal models, a review study shows. The study’s findings suggest that such treatment may represent a suitable approach to treat PAH in humans. Still, further testing is necessary to demonstrate the safety and…

“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” — Aristotle In today’s healthcare environment, an overwhelming percentage of resources are spent on treating diseases and their associated manifestations. While treatment of disease is an essential part of wellness, there is far more to being healthy than simply not being…

Estrogen, one of the major female sex hormones, has a protective effect in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) by halting oxidative stress and collagen deposition, a rat study suggests. The study, “Effect of estrogen on right ventricular remodeling of monocrotaline-induced pulmonary arterial hypertension in rats and its mechanism,” was…

A Phase 3 clinical trial testing LIQ861 met its primary objective, showing that the investigational inhaled dry powder treprostinil formulation is safe and effective for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), according to clinical biopharmaceutical company Liquidia Technologies. Liquidia’s LIQ861 is an alternative to the current inhaled treprostinil treatment…

Madeline Collin, a 24-year-old activist with Gaucher disease, worries that patients like her will suffer deeply if Britain leaves the European Union (EU), as scheduled, at the end of this month. Collin is an expert on the subject. For her University of Bath dissertation, she analyzed Brexit’s long-term impact…

The first participant has been enrolled in a Phase 2 trial testing the investigational therapy levosimendan in pulmonary hypertension (PH) patients with heart failure and preserved ejection fraction (PH-HFpEF). Ejection fraction refers to how much blood the heart’s left ventricle pumps out with each contraction. In PH-HFpEF, the…

With each new advance in medicine comes ethical dilemmas, from fertility treatments and newborn screening, to vaccinations, gene therapies and euthanasia. But rare diseases and the expensive therapies needed to treat them — particularly in an age of scarce economic resources — almost always entail “tragic choices,” warned Avraham Steinberg,…

Women’s pulmonary artery muscle cells produce more of a signal molecule called hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF1α), which may contribute to the higher prevalence of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in women compared to men, a study reports. The data also suggest that a component of…

Spouses of people with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) report feeling insecure about their situation and dissatisfied with the degree of information and support provided by healthcare teams, according to…

High pulmonary pressure, cardiac medication use, and poor heart function are all risk factors for pulmonary hypertension (PH) in adults after a procedure to repair an atrial septal defect, a hole in the wall (septum) that divides the two upper chambers of the heart, a study reports. The study,…

Transition from phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors (PDE5i) — such as United Therapeutics’ Adcirca (taladafil) and Pfizer‘s Revatio (sildenafil) — to Bayer‘s Adempas (riociguat), a soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) stimulator, without a washout period is a viable option for some patients with pulmonary hypertension, a small study suggests. The…

Rare diseases affect about 30 million Americans — roughly the same number as those with type 2 diabetes. Yet only 5 percent of the estimated 7,000 rare diseases known to science have cures or treatments approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Raising awareness of those illnesses and highlighting…