Current Diagnostic and Prognostic Assessment of Pulmonary Hypertension

Recently, our view of pulmonary hypertension has been changed by the significant progress made in understanding the pathobiology, epidemiology and prognosis of the disease. The increasing number of different conditions now associated with pulmonary hypertension and the appearance of new diagnostic techniques have led to a need for a systematic diagnostic approach and a new disease classification. This review article presents an update on developments in the epidemiology and pathobiology of pulmonary hypertension, on changes in the clinical classification of the disease, and on alterations in the diagnostic algorithm. In addition, it contains detailed descriptions of the treatment recommended for patients in whom an elevated systolic pulmonary pressure is discovered on echocardiography, of the differential diagnosis of pulmonary arterial hypertension and pulmonary hypertension associated with left heart disease, and of multifactorial approaches to determining prognosis, which are three of the most actively debated topics today. Finally, a care program for patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension is proposed.