Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2022

Publication Title

Journal of Clinical Medicine

Volume

11

Issue

15

Pages

4568 (1-9)

DOI

10.3390/jcm11154568

Abstract

Exercise-induced increases in pulmonary blood flow normally increase pulmonary arterial pressure only minimally, largely due to a reserve of pulmonary capillaries that are available for recruitment to carry the flow. In pulmonary arterial hypertension, due to precapillary arteriolar obstruction, such recruitment is greatly reduced. In exercising pulmonary arterial hypertension patients, pulmonary arterial pressure remains high and may even increase further. Current pulmonary arterial hypertension therapies, acting principally as vasodilators, decrease calculated pulmonary vascular resistance by increasing pulmonary blood flow but have a minimal effect in lowering pulmonary arterial pressure and do not restore significant capillary recruitment. Novel pulmonary arterial hypertension therapies that have mainly antiproliferative properties are being developed to try and diminish proliferative cellular obstruction in precapillary arterioles. If effective, those agents should restore capillary recruitment and, during exercise testing, pulmonary arterial pressure should remain low despite increasing pulmonary blood flow. The effectiveness of every novel therapy for pulmonary arterial hypertension should be evaluated not only at rest, but with measurement of exercise pulmonary hemodynamics during clinical trials.

Comments

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Original Publication Citation

Langleben, D., Orfanos, S. E., Fox, B. D., Messas, N., Giovinazzo, M., & Catravas, J. D. (2022). The paradox of pulmonary vascular resistance: Restoration of pulmonary capillary recruitment as a sine qua non for true therapeutic success in pulmonary arterial hypertension. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 11(15), 1-9, Article 4568. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm11154568

ORCID

0000-0002-5098-295X (Catravas)

Share

COinS