Learning and research

Reduced functional capacity and poor sleep quality are common in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Wearable devices are an emerging, user-friendly tool to capture activity and sleep information. We aimed to determine whether Fitbit-derived activity and sleep trends provide clinically meaningful information in patients with PAH. 

Part of the Hypoxia in pulmonary vascular research – altitude and beyond webinar series

Kholdani and colleagues describe patient characteristics, completeness of diagnostic testing, treatment patterns, risk characteristics, and outcomes of a large cohort of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension seen at an academic pulmonary hypertension center over a 20-year period.

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) at high altitudes presents unique characteristics due to hypobaric hypoxia. We aimed to evaluate the association between early diagnosis and clinical outcomes among children with severe PH living at high altitudes. A retrospective analysis was conducted on 86 children, divided into three age groups at the time of diagnosis: ≤3, 3–10, and ≥10 years.

Ventricular septal defect (VSD) is one of the most common congenital heart defects. Large, uncorrected VSDs can lead to significant left-to-right shunting, resulting in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and progressive pulmonary vascular disease. Early surgical intervention is recommended but is not always possible due to various socioeconomic and health infrastructure-related issues, especially in countries like India.

Pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH) is a fatal disease associated with high mortality, especially in countries with limited health resources in terms of lack of access to diagnostic and therapeutic evaluations. Therefore, it is necessary to discover inexpensive and available serum biomarkers for examining patients.

The right ventricle (RV), because of its anatomic location and contractile pattern, has remained an elusive target for accurate characterization by echocardiography in both healthy children and various disease states. As such, cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging remains the gold standard for myocardial assessment and RV function.

Pulmonary arterial endothelial and smooth muscle cell homeostasis is regulated through the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) and transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) receptor pathways. Pathway imbalance results in pulmonary hypertension (PH). Each pathway has ligands and modulators influencing this balance. How these pathways differ in pediatric PH patients is unknown.

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a rare, complex disease affecting both children and adults. Efforts to provide health education are imperative as health literacy impacts patient and caregiver capacity to acquire, process, and understand health information and make informed health decisions. 

The authors of this manuscript titled “Elective thoracic surgical resections for pulmonary arteriovenous malformations—a 16 year single-center experience,” presents excellent surgical results for elective operations performed in 24 patients with pulmonary parenchymal arteriovenous malformations.