Pulmonary Hypertension

There are various signs of primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH). Which signs are seen in a person and how obvious they are depends largely on how far advanced the disease actually is.

In addition, the signs of PPH may be very different in their severity in many people, and this makes diagnosing the problem rather complex. For people with any signs of primary pulmonary hypertension, the first step is to talk with their doctor about their concerns.

These signs are also often signs of other problems, as well. Some heart and lung problems can have very similar symptoms, but so can anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and many other disease and conditions. Chest pain is one of the signs of PPH, but there are over thirty different causes of chest pain, and almost all of them are completely benign.

Being able to recognize PPH symptoms is not that easy. Most people would think that a condition would have specific guidelines to go by for the discovery and observation of symptoms, but this is not the case with PPH. Mostly, this is due to the fact that PPH has symptoms such as chest pain, chronic fatigue, and shortness of breath, which are also common to other cardiac and psychiatric conditions, as well as more easily treatable medical problems such as anemia. When people look at the symptoms of PPH, they usually think of the other conditions first, and the PPH goes untreated.

Eventually, PPH is usually discovered if it is present, but many individuals find that they are already very sick before their doctor determines what is actually wrong with them. The time it takes to diagnose an individual can contribute to this very easily. Finding what is wrong with a person so that he or she can be treated is crucial to ensuring that the patient receives the best care. Without treating them quickly, PPH can become much more severe very rapidly. For those who have PPH, this is not something that they want to have happen. The same is true for their loved ones who want them to remain healthy.

The most important thing for a person with symptoms is to rule out other problems first. Because feeling tired and fatigued, being short of breath, and experiencing chest pain can come from so many different factors, there are often many other tests that a person with symptoms will receive before he or she is actually checked for that particular problem.

When a person with signs of primary pulmonary hypertension is checked for that disease, it is through a cardiac caterization, which is the only way to test the pressure in the blood vessels in the lungs. This pressure is usually relatively low, but it is very high with primary pulmonary hypertension, and the difference will be unmistakable. While the signs are not that rare, the disease itself is, and there are few people who actually develop it.

What causes the disease is also unclear, but many people who develop signs of primary pulmonary hypertension do so after taking certain types of diet drugs. There are currently several lawsuits against the maker of these drugs because of the rise in people with symptoms throughout the United States.

This is a worrisome trend, and there are no guarantees as to how many more people with present to doctors with signs of primary pulmonary hypertension in the near future. Often, these are women between the ages of twenty and forty, which seems young. However, this is also the group that would have been the most likely to take these diet drugs, as well.

By: Nick Johnson

Labels: and hypertension, hypertension, hypertension causes, hypertension is, hypertension symptoms, hypertension treatment, hypertensive, pregnancy hypertension, pulmonary hypertension

Many people have heard the term 'hypertension' and know that it is synonymous with high blood pressure. But what is primary pulmonary hypertension? As the name suggests, this disease has something to do with the pulmonary artery that is responsible for carrying oxygen-depleted blood into the heart where it can be pumped into the lungs.

For unknown reasons, the pressure in the pulmonary artery can become quite high, altering the smaller blood vessels within the lungs. When this happens, the heart has to work much harder to pump the blood into the lungs, which results in a strain on this portion of the heart.

Because the heart is affected by primary pulmonary hypertension, this disease can become quite serious, especially if it is not caught and diagnosed in its early stages. For this reason, it is important to understand what it is, and how to recognize the symptoms of this disease.

The symptoms can include shortness of breath, dizziness, fainting and extreme fatigue. Because these symptoms are somewhat nondescript, there are many other possibilities that are generally rule out before a diagnosis is given.

This leads many patients to suffer with the disease without an accurate diagnosis for some time, until the later symptoms of the disease begin to appear. These symptoms might include swelling of the legs and ankles, a bluish tint around the lips and mouth and chest pain. A diagnosis for primary pulmonary hypertension can be fairly easily made through a test called a heart cauterization.

During this diagnostic test, a small tube is inserted through a vein in the arm or leg and then threaded up into the heart and pulmonary artery. A tiny camera is attached to the end of the tube so the doctor can see the heart and arteries to determine if anything is out of the ordinary.

A diagnosis of primary pulmonary hypertension may lead to medications like anticoagulants to prevent blood clots from forming and diuretics that reduce the amount of fluid in the body. Oxygen may be given if breathing has become more difficult, and in some of the more severe cases a lung or heart/lung transplant may be necessary.

There is no cure for primary pulmonary hypertension; a patient's best bet is to successfully treat the symptoms and possibly slow the progression of the disease. The first step is early diagnosis, which can occur when a doctor and patient understand what it is, and make an early, accurate diagnosis.

By: Nick Johnson

Labels: and hypertension, hypertension, hypertension causes, hypertension is, hypertension symptoms, hypertension treatment, hypertensive, pregnancy hypertension, pulmonary hypertension

Welcome to Pulmonary Hypertension blog...

Labels: and hypertension, hypertension, hypertension causes, hypertension is, hypertension symptoms, hypertension treatment, hypertensive, pregnancy hypertension, pulmonary hypertension