What is primary pulmonary hypertension? The best place to start is the pulmonary arteries. These arteries move the blood from the right ventricle of the heart to the lungs for oxygen.. When people have high blood pressure specifically in the pulmonary arteries, they have pulmonary hypertension. This could be an extremely rare side-effect of Pondimin and Redux. The connection, however, has not been proven and more studies are needed to discover if this is in fact the case. Primary pulmonary hypertension can lead to a failure of the right side of the heart as well as an inhibited ability to exercise. Symptons include some basic signs such as shortness of breath, fainting or syncope, fatigue, and angina pectoris. If arterial pressure becomes higher than 25 mmHg, pulmonary hypertension almost certainly exists. Normal pressure of someone living at sea level is only 12-16 mmHg. A Swan-Ganz catheter can measure this accurately. Primary pulmonary hypertension occurs without an obvious cause. Secondary pulmonary hypertension comes because of another disease. If the case is pph, it is considered to be a genetic disorder. It can be associated with appetite suppressants like Fen-phen. There was even a lawsuit about Fen-phen (Abenhaim et al, 1996). There could be a genetic weakness to problem drugs, the basic cause of the disease is not known. You can find more about this at my site at pulmonary-research.com PPH can often be fatal and people who have it usually do not show symptoms until they are in their late twenties or early thirties. Fortunately, it's still a rare problem, however women are almost twice as susceptible to it as men. Treatment can vary depending on the cause of primary pulmonary hypertension. Oxygen therapy can be useful if patients have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. An inferior vena caval filter insertion or a pulmonary endarterectonmy can be done if the PPH is caused by chronic thromboembolism. Lifestyle changes are key to lessening the effects of PPH. Digoxin, diuretics, oral anticoagulands and vasodilators are also beneficial. Sildenafil can also be used to treat primary pulmonary hypertension. |
