Pulmonary hypertension death rate falling, but not all across globe
U.S. among countries with higher mortality due to PH over 2 decades: Study
Deaths around the world due to pulmonary hypertension (PH) have fallen over the past two decades, according to a new study, but 13 of the 54 countries included in the review actually saw their death rates rise.
Worldwide, deaths from PH fell at an average rate of 3.2% each year from 2000 to 2019, the study found. Altogether, mortality rates fell in 16 countries, were unchanged in 25, and increased in the remaining nations.
Despite “an overall decrease in PH mortality trends over the past two decades, there were substantial differences across countries,” researchers from the West China Hospital wrote. Their study, “International trends in pulmonary hypertension mortality between 2001 and 2019: Retrospective analysis of the WHO mortality database,” was published in the journal Heliyon.
“Currently, early diagnosis and available treatment remain a grand challenge due to limited healthcare resources in some low- and middle-income countries,” the scientists wrote.
“For those countries with high or rising mortality rates, continuous efforts are needed to reduce mortality risk, such as the establishment of tertiary PH care and elderly care centers,” the team added.
Georgia, Romania, and the U.S. had the highest pulmonary hypertension death rates in the last three years of the observation period. That’s in line with a study released in 2022, which found that PH-related deaths in the U.S. rose between 1999 and 2019, with women, non-Hispanic Black people, and older individuals at higher risk.
Pulmonary hypertension linked to higher death risk for patients
PH occurs when the blood pressure in the blood vessels that supply the lungs is higher than normal. This makes the heart work harder than it should to pump blood into the lungs, causing symptoms such as shortness of breath, chest pain, and lightheadedness.
While all types of PH are linked to an increased risk of death, there are limited data on mortality trends around the world. To get a broader picture of PH-related mortality trends, the researchers drew on World Health Organization data.
Between 2000 and 2019, PH accounted for 491,287 deaths across the 54 countries included in the report. The number of PH-related deaths per 100,000 people fell by 23.3% to 1.61 in 2019 from 2.1 in 2000.
[A] possible explanation for decreased mortality was that with the increasing awareness of PH among clinicians, PH could be diagnosed and treated early, which might improve outcomes from advanced PH.
Most of the deaths (52.3%) were related to pulmonary heart disease. Primary PH, also known as idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension, caused 14.3% of deaths, and secondary PH — pulmonary hypertension due to underlying diseases or known risk factors — caused 31.1%.
Mortality trends fell at an average rate of 3.2% each year during the same period, among males (5.3%) and females (1.7%) alike. Deaths from pulmonary heart disease, which can occur when the right side of the heart becomes enlarged, dropped by 8.6%, and those from primary PH fell by 7.8%.
The rates of death due to primary PH and pulmonary heart disease fell significantly, while those from secondary PH and other specified pulmonary heart diseases saw significant increases.
“Improvements in clinical management might improve the prognosis of PH, leading to a shift toward PH as a contributing factor to death rather than the underlying cause,” the researchers wrote.
“Another possible explanation for decreased mortality was that with the increasing awareness of PH among clinicians, PH could be diagnosed and treated early, which might improve outcomes from advanced PH,” they wrote.
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