It can be quite hard to diagnose pulmonary hypertension, especially when you go for a routine medical examination. This is because most of its symptoms like fatigue, shortness of breath, and dizziness are linked to many other conditions.
Therefore, if your doctor thinks that you have pulmonary hypertension. They may decide to check your family and medical history, perform a diagnostic test, and do a physical examination. This post discusses the important facts about pulmonary hypertension.
What You Should Know about Pulmonary Hypertension?
Pulmonary hypertension refers to when the blood pressure in your arteries of the lungs gets high because of the narrowing of the vessels. This causes strains to the heart’s right ventricle and can cause heart failure.
This condition is a rare lung disorder. And it can happen to any person regardless of age, race, or ethnic background. However, it’s quite common in young adults and happens in more women than men. Now you may be wondering why these arteries narrow. Well, many scientists and medical research on pulmonary hypertension think that it can start with an injury to cells that are in the small blood vessels of your lungs.
The injury happens for an unknown reason. But it can cause some changes in the interaction of these cells, especially with the smooth muscle cells that are in the vessel walls. As a result, these smooth muscles may contract and grow larger than normal and narrow blood vessels.
Causes of pulmonary hypertension are many and include lung conditions, rheumatic disorders, and liver diseases. Besides these, this condition can also happen because of other medical conditions like liver cirrhosis, chronic liver disease, and lung conditions, such as systemic lupus erythematosus and scleroderma. Others are certain heart diseases like left heart failure, aortic valve disease, and mitral valve disease can also cause this condition.
Pulmonary Hypertension can be Fatal
You can only notice symptoms of it once the condition has progressed. The initial symptom is usually breathlessness with everyday activities like exercising, dizziness, fatigue, and fainting spells can also be a sign that you have pulmonary hypertension.
Others include swelling in the legs, ankles, or legs, chest pains, and bluish skin and lips. These symptoms can vary in severity and you may not experience all these symptoms.
While this condition is rare, some people get it and they may experience serious symptoms which can be fatal. Women are likely to be affected by it more than men.
The good news is that you can find various treatment options that have been developed over the years. In most cases, some care providers can offer several options or medications, though it’s impossible to cure it. Care providers and Institute may lookout for the symptoms to reduce their effects, improve your quality of life, increase the length of survival, and reduce the symptoms.
For group 4 and group 1 pulmonary hypertension, you can find some approved medications. On the other hand, the other groups of it require the care providers to treat the underlying conditions that cause pulmonary hypertension. You can also find the right treatment, but in its advanced stages, you may need to have a lung transplant.
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