The Pulmonary Circulation in Heart Failure

Abstract

Pulmonary hypertension due to left heart disease is a pathophysiological and hemodynamic state which is present in a wide range of clinical conditions that affect left heart structures. Although the pulmonary circulation has traditionally received little attention, it is reasonable to say that today it is a fundamental part of cardiological evaluation. In patients with heart failure, the most important clinical factors are the presence of pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular function. These factors are also essential for determining prognosis and must be taken into account when making some of the most important therapeutic decisions. The pathophysiological process starts passively but later transforms into a reactive process. This latter process, in turn, has one component that can be reversed with vasodilators and another component that is fixed, in which the underlying mechanism is congestive vasculopathy (i.e. essentially medial hypertrophy and pulmonary arterial intimal fibrosis). Currently no specific therapy is available for this type of pulmonary hypertension and treatment is the same as for heart failure itself. The drugs that have been shown to be effective in pulmonary arterial hypertension have generally had a neutral effect in clinical trials. Nevertheless, we are involved in the clinical development of a number of groups of pharmacological compounds that will enable us to make progress in the near future.