Clinical characterizations and severity evaluation of pulmonary hypertension

Abstract

Objective Analyze clinical characterizations and severity of 102 cases of pulmonary hypertension from Apr 2003 to Dec 2011.Methods Investigate the age,etiology,symptoms,disease severity and the correlation between echocardiography and right heart catheterization (RHC) in pulmonary hypertension (PH) patients by retrospective methods.Results Female was majority (72.5％)in PH and the peak age period of the disease was middle-aged and youth people.The major symptoms of PH were breathless after exercise (81.4％) and chest congestation (51.9％).The top 3 etiologies were idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH) (49 cases,48.0％),congenital systemic-pulmonary shunts (19 cases,18.6 ％),chronic pulmonary thromboembonic disease (10 cases,9.8 ％).The systolic pulmonary artery pressure (sPAP) measured by Echo is different from those got by RHC.The discrepancies of sPAP between these two methods (absolute value) were 1-10 mm Hg (33.4％),11-20 mm Hg(33.3 ％),and ≥21 mm Hg (33.3 ％) respectively.The echocardiography might be overestimate or underestimate the real pressure,when the discrepancy was more than 10 mm Hg.The correlation between echocardiography and RHC was good (r =0.634,P ＜0.01).Echocardiography had been found to overestimated 9 cases of mild or moderate PH.The echocardiography could provide an accurate evaluation of PH magnitude,especially for a severe PH (accuracy rate:95.23％).Conclusions Echocardiography has a good relationship with right heart catheterization.It is a helpful clue for diagnosis of PH.The absence of an elevated pulmonary artery pressure appears to exclude PH reliably,Echocardiography could provide relatively accurate evaluation for severe PH.Mild or moderate elevated pulmonary artery pressure by echocardiography should be analyzed with other information like history,symptoms and biomarkers.For those who is hard to get accurate diagnosis,RHC.should be suggested. Key words: Pulmonary hypertension; Severity evaluation