Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
https://hdl.handle.net/10216/67142
Author(s): | Lourenço, AP Fontoura, D Henriques-Coelho, T Leite-Moreira, AF |
Title: | Current pathophysiological concepts and management of pulmonary hypertension |
Issue Date: | 2012 |
Abstract: | Pulmonary hypertension (PH), increasingly recognized as a major health burden, remains underdiagnosed due mainly to the unspecific symptoms. Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) has been extensively investigated. Pathophysiological knowledge derives mostly from experimental models. Paradoxically, common non-PAH PH forms remain largely unexplored. Drugs targeting lung vascular tonus became available during the last two decades, notwithstanding the disease progresses in many patients. The aim of this review is to summarize recent advances in epidemiology, pathophysiology and management with particular focus on associated myocardial and systemic compromise and experimental therapeutic possibilities. PAH, currently viewed as a panvasculopathy, is due to a crosstalk between endothelial and smooth muscle cells, inflammatory activation and altered subcellular pathways. Cardiac cachexia and right ventricular compromise are fundamental determinants of PH prognosis. Combined vasodilator therapy is already mainstay for refractory cases, but drugs directed at these new pathophysiological pathways may constitute a significant advance. |
Subject: | Ciências médicas e da saúde Medical and Health sciences |
Scientific areas: | Ciências médicas e da saúde Medical and Health sciences |
URI: | https://repositorio-aberto.up.pt/handle/10216/67142 |
Document Type: | Artigo em Revista Científica Internacional |
Rights: | openAccess |
License: | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
Appears in Collections: | FMUP - Artigo em Revista Científica Internacional |
This item is licensed under a Creative Commons License