18 Feb 2008 04:38:22 | Jake Randal
Primary Pulmonary Hypertension
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.
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. More can be
learned at pulmonary-research.com.
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.
About Author :
Jake maintains pulmonary
research and health-research.com.