UMEM Educational Pearls

Category: Cardiology

Title: Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH)

Keywords: Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) (PubMed Search)

Posted: 12/17/2012 by Semhar Tewelde, MD (Updated: 4/25/2024)
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  • PAH can be classified as primary (PPH) or secondary pulmonary hypertension (SPH)
  • Epoprostenol a prostacyclin analog was the first primary drug for patients w/PAH
  • Recent clinical trials describe combination therapy as superior in efficacy to traditional monotherapy
  • Varied etiologies of PAH hampers the performance of RCTs for each combination therapy
  • PAH is associated w/diminished endothelium factor & nitric oxide, increased phosphodiesterase enzyme leading to the development of the ET-1 receptor antagonist (ERA) bosentan and the PDE- V inhibitor sildenafil
  • RCTs are currently investigating the efficacy of three news agents in tx of PAH: imatinib, riociguat, and selexipag 

References

A. Yao. Journal of Cardiology 60 (2012) 344–349