Hemodynamic Thresholds for Precapillary Pulmonary Hypertension.
BACKGROUND
Hemodynamic differentiation between pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and postcapillary pulmonary hypertension (PH) is important because treatment options are strikingly different for the two disease subsets. Whereas patients with PAH can be treated effectively with targeted therapies, their use in postcapillary PH is currently not recommended. Our aim was to establish an algorithm to identify patients who are likely to experience a significant hemodynamic treatment response.


METHODS
We determined hemodynamic cutoffs to discriminate between idiopathic PAH and postcapillary PH in a large database of 4,363 stable patients undergoing first diagnostic right and left heart catheterizations. In a second step, we performed a patient-level pooled analysis of four randomized, placebo-controlled trials including 541 patients with PAH who received treprostinil or placebo, to validate hemodynamic cutoffs with regard to treatment response.


RESULTS
Receiver operating characteristic analysis identified mean pulmonary arterial wedge pressure (mPAWP) < 12 mm Hg and diastolic pulmonary vascular pressure gradient (DPG) ≥ 7 mm Hg as the best hemodynamic discriminators between idiopathic PAH and postcapillary PH. In our treatment study, only patients with mPAWP < 12 mm Hg, DPG > 20 mm Hg or a combination of both had a significant placebo-corrected improvement in hemodynamics.


CONCLUSIONS
mPAWP < 12 mm Hg and DPG > 20 mm Hg identify patients with PAH who are likely to have significant hemodynamic improvement with prostacyclin treatment.
Department of Internal Medicine II, Division of Cardiology, Vienna General Hospital, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Christian
C
Gerges
Department of Internal Medicine II, Division of Cardiology, Vienna General Hospital, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Mario
M
Gerges
Department of Internal Medicine II, Division of Cardiology, Vienna General Hospital, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Nika
N
Skoro-Sajer
United Therapeutics Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC.
Yi
Y
Zhou
United Therapeutics Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC.
Lixia
L
Zhang
Department of Internal Medicine II, Division of Cardiology, Vienna General Hospital, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Roela
R
Sadushi-Kolici
Department of Internal Medicine II, Division of Cardiology, Vienna General Hospital, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Johannes
J
Jakowitsch
Department of Internal Medicine II, Division of Cardiology, Vienna General Hospital, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Marie B
MB
Lang
Department of Internal Medicine II, Division of Cardiology, Vienna General Hospital, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: irene.lang@meduniwien.ac.at.
Irene M
IM
Lang
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016208:Databases, Factual; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D011464:Epoprostenol / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000627:therapeutic use; D065627:Familial Primary Pulmonary Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy; D005260:Female; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans; D006976:Hypertension, Pulmonary / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011652:Pulmonary Circulation; D011669:Pulmonary Wedge Pressure; D012372:ROC Curve; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014655:Vascular Resistance
D000959:Antihypertensive Agents; D011464:Epoprostenol; C427248:treprostinil
heart failure; hemodynamics; pulmonary circulation; pulmonary hypertension