ABSTRACT

Pulmonary arterial hypertension is defined as a mean pulmonary pressure › 25 mmHg at rest or 30 mmHg during exercise. Increase in pulmonary pressure is resulted from elevated pulmonary vascular resistance of pulmonary blood flow; however, even with significance elevated pulmonary blood flow occasionally develops severe elevation in pulmonary pressure, at least exist pathologic vascular changes. Right heart catheterization must be performed in all patients studied for pulmonary arterial hypertension; it confirms diagnosis, is useful in differential diagnosis, in evaluation of hypertension severity and permits to determinate prognosis during the response to vasodilator drugs administration. Actually, vasodilator drugs used during vascular pulmonary reactivity test are adenosine, prostacyclin and analogs, and nitric oxide, patients considered responders are those with a decrease ≤ 40 mmHg in mean pulmonary pressure. The utility of the test is to justify long term treatment with calcium channel blockers.

KEYWORDS

Right heart catheterization, pulmonary vascular response, pulmonary artery hypertension, mean pulmonary pressure.

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