Learning and research

Idiopathic Pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a debilitating lung condition marked by chronic progression and reduced lung function. This study aimed to explore the functional role and regulatory mechanism of circular RNA circ_0044226 in the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis. 

Pulmonary endarterectomy (PEA) is a highly effective treatment for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). However, persistent or recurrent pulmonary hypertension (persistent/recurrent PH) following surgery can adversely impact patients’ outcomes. 

Right ventricular (RV) dysfunction is a critical yet often underrecognized determinant of prognosis in patients with advanced interstitial lung disease (ILD) undergoing lung transplant evaluation.

Part of the Latin America Task Force new webinar series, the first session aims to evaluate PH and differential diagnosis, and the differences in phenotype presentations in Latin America and USA / Europe.

The resistance–compliance (RC) relationship between pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) and pulmonary arterial compliance (PAC) provides an integrative measure of global right ventricular (RV) afterload. However, debate persists regarding the clinical utility of PAC calculated using the empiric formula (PACempiric), and the ideal method for calculating PAC. 

It was a Sunday morning. That was the only time Drs. Pat Daily or Walt Dembitsky could review cases before they operated on Monday. It was 1986, and I was a pulmonary fellow, so my presence at this meeting with Dr. Kenneth Moser (1929–1997) (Figure 1) was as an observer, not a participant. 

In 1988, I had spent over 2 years at the Physiological Institute, working on the competition between skin- and muscle blood flow for cardiac output in man during exercise, when I started my residency in Internal Medicine. There I met Werner Seeger, who was a consultant and was directing the Intensive Care Unit at that time. He enrolled me in his research group, which focused on acute respiratory stress syndrome (ARDS), a condition characterised by a ventilation-perfusion mismatch that results in competition for blood flow between well- and poorly ventilated lung areas, a topic I had previously explored in my scientific work.

In this PH Community Call we discussed: 

• Risk Assessment Models and Event-Free Survival in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
• PINK1/Parkin Deficiency Enhances Vascular Remodeling and Aggravates Hypoxia-induced Pulmonary Hypertension

We read with great interest the recent article by Xi et al. entitled “Pulmonary artery dilatation in different causes of pulmonary hypertension.” The authors provide a comprehensive evaluation of more than one thousand patients with different subtypes of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH), showing that pulmonary artery (PA) dilatation is a common finding but does not independently predict survival. 

Although there are defined outpatient and inpatient spaces, when end of life occurs in the intensive care unit (ICU) setting, there is an opportunity for collaboration for chronic and acute medical teams to work for a “good death.”

In this commentary, we share our perspectives on collaborating for pulmonary hypertension patients as they approach end-of-life.