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Background: Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a progressive, fatal disease. Published treatment guidelines recommend treatment escalation on the basis of regular patient assessment with the goal of achieving or maintaining low-risk status. Various strategies are available to determine risk status. This analysis describes an update of the Registry to Evaluate Early and Long-Term PAH Disease Management (REVEAL) risk calculator (REVEAL 2.0) and compares it with recently published European Society of Cardiology/Respiratory Society guideline-derived risk assessment strategies.Methods: A subpopulation from the US-based registry REVEAL that survived ≥ 1 year postenrollment (baseline for this cohort) was analyzed. For REVEAL 2.0, point values and cutpoints were reassessed, and new variables were evaluated. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate survival at 12 months postbaseline; discrimination was quantified using the c-statistic. Mortality estimates and discrimination were compared between REVEAL 2.0 and Comparative, Prospective Registry of Newly Initiated Therapies for Pulmonary Hypertension (COMPERA) and French Pulmonary Hypertension Registry (FPHR) risk assessment strategies. For this comparison, a three-category REVEAL 2.0 score was computed in which patients were classified as low-, intermediate-, or high-risk.Results: REVEAL 2.0 demonstrated similar discrimination as the original calculator in this subpopulation (c-statistic = 0.76 vs 0.74), provided excellent separation of risk among the risk categories, and predicted clinical worsening as well as mortality in patients who were followed ≥ 1 year. The REVEAL 2.0 three-category score had greater discrimination (c-statistic = 0.73) than COMPERA (c-statistic = 0.62) or FPHR (c-statistic = 0.64). Compared with REVEAL 2.0, COMPERA and FPHR both underestimated and overestimated risk.Conclusions: REVEAL 2.0 demonstrates greater risk discrimination than the COMPERA and FPHR risk assessment strategies in patients enrolled in REVEAL. After external validation, the REVEAL 2.0 calculator can assist clinicians and patients in making informed treatment decisions on the basis of individual risk profiles.Trial Registry: ClinicalTrials.gov; No. NCT00370214; URL: www.clinicaltrials.gov. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is a rare disease associated with cystic lung destruction and abdominal tumors, including lymphangioleiomyomas, which frequently occur in the retroperitoneal region. Sirolimus therapy is currently recommended for LAM patients with abnormal or declining lung function with an adjusted dose to maintain a serum trough level of 5–15 ng/mL. We describe a significant reduction of retroperitoneal lymphangioleiomyomas after treatment with low‑dose sirolimus therapy (serum trough level <5 ng/mL) in a patient with sporadic LAM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the results of a research study which reveals the conversion of sildenafil to tadalif medicine as treatment for patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The research study assess the safety and patient satisfaction with the drug conversion base on recorded adverse events (AEs). It concludes that patients taking sildenafil to tadafil were usually well tolerated with improve convenience and treatment satisfaction.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive disease that requires validated biomarkers of disease severity. While PAH is defined hemodynamically by right heart catheterization (RHC), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) is recommended by guidelines to assess disease status. Retrospectively collected data in 138 group 1 PAH patients were examined for the correlation of BNP levels to simultaneously obtained right heart catheterization (RHC). Patients were mostly Caucasian women, with functional class III symptoms, mean BNP of 406 ± 443 pg/mL, and an average right atrial pressure (RAP) of 9.9 ± 5.7 mm Hg and mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP) of 47.3 ± 14.7 mm Hg. Significant correlation was demonstrated between BNP and RAP (p = 0.021) and mPAP (p = 0.003). Additional correlation was seen with right heart size on echocardiography: right atrial (RAE; p = 0.04) and right ventricular enlargement (p = 0.03). An increased BNP level was an independent predictor of mortality (p < 0.0001), along with RAP (p = 0.039) and RAE (p = 0.018). Simultaneous collection of BNP at the time of RHC confirmed the correlation of BNP with right heart hemodynamics. The current results reinforce the use of BNP level as a continuous variable to assess disease severity in group 1 PAH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on the prevalence of acute vasoresponsiveness on pulmonary hypertension (PH) patients. The study used vasodilator testing on PH patients with epoprostenol or nitric oxide to explore vasoresponsiveness in the patients. Results reveal that 26% have responded to the acute vasodilator therapy. The study concludes that significant number of PH patients are acutely vasoresponsive to vasodilator therapy and that PH patients may benefit from calcium channel blockers.