title: Assessment of right ventricular responses to therapy in pulmonary hypertension.
abstract: Irrespective of its cause, pulmonary hypertension (PH) leads to an increase in pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR). Failing adaption of the right ventricle (RV) to the increased afterload is the main cause of death in PH patients and therefore monitoring RV function during treatment is essential. However, consensus on the optimal method for serial assessment of RV function is lacking and therefore the major clinical trials on PH-specific therapies have not provided clear answers with respect to the response of the RV to treatment. This short review will give an overview of the most important load-dependent and load-independent parameters for assessing RV response to therapy in PH patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary Diseases, VU University Medical Center, ZH-4A-48, 1000 SN Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Onno A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Spruijt
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary Diseases, VU University Medical Center, ZH-4A-48, 1000 SN Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: hj.bogaard@vumc.nl.
authors.forename: Harm-Jan
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Bogaard
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary Diseases, VU University Medical Center, ZH-4A-48, 1000 SN Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Anton
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vonk-Noordegraaf
mesh_terms: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D006976:Hypertension, Pulmonary / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014655:Vascular Resistance / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*; D016278:Ventricular Function, Right / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents