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Pulmonary hypertension
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Pulmonary hypertension is not a single disease. It is the name that groups very different conditions with something in common: pressure is high in the lung circulation, the circuit the blood passes through to pick up oxygen. The World Health Organization sorts them into five clinical groups.
That circuit is built to work with very little resistance, quite unlike the rest of the body. One route to high pressure is prolonged hypoxemia, a sustained lack of oxygen in the blood. Vasodilators such as nitric oxide, the substances that keep vessels open, are then suppressed, and instead endothelin, a vasoconstrictor that closes them, is released. Pulmonary vascular resistance, which is how hard it is for blood to get through, goes up. It is a circuit built for low pressure whose tubes are slowly closing.
And over time the vessel itself changes. The microvessels remodel: the smooth muscle in their walls grows, the intima, which is the innermost layer, constricts, and the lumen of the vessel, the space the blood flows through, ends up closing off.
In brief
Pulmonary hypertension groups different diseases that share high pressures in the lung circulation, which the World Health Organization sorts into five clinical groups.
That circulation is normally low resistance; one route is prolonged hypoxemia, which suppresses vasodilators such as nitric oxide, promotes endothelin and raises pulmonary vascular resistance.
A circuit built for low pressure whose tubes are slowly closing.
Later the microvessels remodel, with smooth muscle hyperplasia and intimal constriction, until the lumen is obliterated.
Sources (2)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingPulmonary Hypertension, StatPearlsPublished
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingPulmonary Hypertension Due to Lung Disease or Hypoxia, StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
Updated