Diagnostic dilemmas in pulmonary hypertension

Heart Fail Clin. 2012 Jul;8(3):331-52. doi: 10.1016/j.hfc.2012.04.006.

Abstract

Dilemmas persist in the screening, assessment, and follow-up of patients with pulmonary hypertension, relating to issues of whom and how to screen, how to resolve ambiguities in the clinical classification of patients with multiple potential substrates of pulmonary vascular disease, how to interpret test results, how to integrate multiple clinical parameters into a global diagnosis, how to use ambiguous test results, how to determine disease severity and prognosis, and how to monitor patients on treatment. This article describes how to incorporate available information into the diagnostic process, and where lack of concrete data should impose caution in patient management.

MeSH terms

  • Biomarkers
  • Dyspnea
  • Hemodynamics
  • Humans
  • Hypertension, Pulmonary / diagnosis*
  • Hypertension, Pulmonary / pathology
  • Hypertension, Pulmonary / therapy
  • Lung Diseases
  • Mass Screening / methods
  • Prognosis
  • Pulmonary Artery / pathology
  • Pulmonary Veins / pathology
  • Sleep Apnea Syndromes / pathology
  • Ventricular Function, Right

Substances

  • Biomarkers