How is a patient with primary pulmonary hypertension evaluated?
Significant advances in PPH therapy over the past decade have markedly affected the survival and quality of life for people with this disease. The optimal medical and/or surgical treatment for patients with PPH depends upon a thorough evaluation at a medical center with expertise in pulmonary hypertension. The evaluation includes a right heart cardiac catheterization. In this procedure the doctor places a thin, flexible tube (a catheter) through an artery or vein in the patient’s arm, leg or neck, then threads it into the right ventricle and pulmonary artery. This is the only way to measure the pressure in the pulmonary artery and find out what medical therapy is appropriate for a given patient.
