Hypertensive Pulmonary Vascular Disease Research Articles

Graded pulmonary vascular changes and hemodynamic findings in cases of atrial and ventricular septal defect and patent ductus arteriosus.

With use of a previously described system of grading, a study was made of the relation between each of the grades of hypertensive pulmonary vascular disease and the hemodynamic findings in the lesser circulation in 15 cases of atrial septal defect, 19 cases of ventricular septal defect, and 6 cases of patent ductus arteriosus.

The pathology of hypertensive pulmonary vascular disease; a description of six grades of structural changes in the pulmonary arteries with special reference to congenital cardiac septal defects.

Progressive histologic changes occur in the pulmonary arteries and arterioles, as a complication of chronically elevated pulmonary arterial blood pressure, in patients with congenital septal defects of the heart. This progression is so stereotyped as to allow a division of the structural effects into 6 grades. The histologic features of each grade are described in detail in this communication. These results afford a basis for comparing the magnitude of these changes to the clinical findings.

Cor triloculare biatriatum.

Cor triloculare biatriatum is a rare form of congenital heart disease that needs to be considered in the differential diagnosis of the important group of patients with cyanotic congenital heart disease with pulmonary hypertension. The clinical and pathologic features of an example of this disease are reported and discussed in a review of previously reported cases. The small pulmonary blood vessels showed some features of hypertensive pulmonary vascular disease and evidence of an increased bronchial arterial collateral circulation to the lung. An interpretation of these histologic changes relating them to the abnormal pulmonary physiology in cor triloculare biatriatum is suggested.

Hypertensive pulmonary vascular disease.

Patients with pulmonary artery blood pressures that are chronically elevated to levels of the order of the systemic blood pressures, form a distinct clinicopathologic entity. This condition may complicate a ventricular septal defect, Eisenmenger's complex, patent ductus arteriosus, atrial septal defect, and mitral stenosis, and it may occur as idiopathic pulmonary hypertension. The clinical picture is dominated by symptoms and signs characteristic of pulmonary hypertension, which often mask underlying cardiac anomalies, and definitive pathologic changes occur in the pulmonary vasculature. The term hypertensive pulmonary vascular disease is therefore suggested for this distinct group of patients.