WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina | Health Alert: Pulmonary hypertension

Health Alert: Pulmonary hypertension

(National) September 13, 2006 - Pulmonary hypertension is a lung disease that doctors typically don't find until it's too late. So doctors are trying to get the word out about this deadly disease.

Dean Martin's been living with pulmonary hypertension since grade school, "I had open heart surgery before that and as a result of that, they said this could be a complication. So, they had kind of been watching for it."

He's lucky doctors caught the disease early. According to heart specialist Vallerie McLaughlin, many patients don't have a pre-existing condition to serve as a warning sign. "What saddens me is that sometimes patients are quite advanced in terms of their symptoms by the time they get to me."

A fatal disease if untreated, pulmonary hypertension is high blood pressure in the lungs. When the pressure goes up, the heart can't pump enough blood through the lungs to the rest of the body.

It causes shortness of breath - a symptom so common, the disease is often misdiagnosed. Dr. McLaughlin says, "Many times patients who have pulmonary hypertension are misdiagnosed with asthma or deconditioning or some other disorder before someone really recognizes the problem."

Doctors can check for the disease with an echocardiogram - a simple test that uses sound waves to create a moving picture of the heart. Dr. McLaughlin explains, "That is a screening test and it's really an estimate. To really diagnose pulmonary hypertension, one has to have a right heart catheterization."

There's no cure, but there are treatments to lower blood pressure in the lungs. Dean wears a device that pumps the medication directly into his body, "I had gotten a lot worse in early 2000. I couldn't go to work, I could barely get out of bed. So, this medication really gave me my life back."

Pulmonary hypertension affects women more than men by a two-to-one ratio. The women are typically in their child-bearing years between 20 and 40.

Disorders like scleroderma, congenital heart disease and some liver diseases can cause pulmonary hypertension, but many times there is no known cause.

Posted 4:41pm by Chantelle Janelle