title: [Etiology of severe pulmonary hypertension--possible role of metabolic syndrome].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In clinical practice the association between obesity and pulmonary hypertension (PH) is not rare.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome in patients with severe PH, especially cases without significant cardiac, pulmonary or vascular causes.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively anaLyzed the records of 91 patients with severe PH in order to establish its causes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 64% of the patients were women. The women were older than the men, 76.5 years vs 74.0. The BMI of the women was higher than the men, 37.0 vs 30.07. The most common causes of severe PH seen in an internal medicine ward are: severe heart failure (45.1%), chronic lung disease (16.5%) or a combination of both (12.1%). Overall, 11% of our study patients were morbidly obese without significant cardiac, pulmonary or vascular causes of PH. This group was characterized by high incidence of diabetes meLLitus, arterial hypertension, hyperlipidemia, atrial fibrillation and left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results point to a possible association between metabolic syndrome and PH.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine A, Barzilai Medical Center, Ben Gurion University of the Negev.
authors.forename: Jacob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kogan
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Avrutin
authors.forename: Svetlana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Turkot
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Golzman
authors.forename: Chaim
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yosefy
authors.forename: Shmuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Oren
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D006976:Hypertension, Pulmonary / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications*; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index