2014 Guidelines of Taiwan Society of Cardiology (TSOC) for the Management of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.
Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a hemodynamic and pathophysiologic condition, defined as a mean pulmonary arterial pressure exceeding 25 mmHg at rest. According to the recent classifications, it is grouped into pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), heart-related, lung-related, thromboembolic, and miscellaneous PH. In the past two decades, tremendous advances have occurred in the field of PH. These include (1) development of clinical diagnostic algorithm and a monitoring strategy dedicated to PAH, (2) defining strong rationales for screening at-risk populations, (3) advent of pulmonary specific drugs which makes PAH manageable, (4) recognition of needs of having proper strategy of combining existing pulmonary specific drugs, and/or potential novel drugs, (5) pursuit of clinical trials with optimal surrogate endpoints and study durations, (6) recognition of critical roles of PH/right ventricular function, as well as interdependence of ventricles in different conditions, especially those with various phenotypes of heart failure, and (7) for rare diseases, putting equal importance on carefully designed observation studies, various registries, etc., besides double blind randomized studies. In addition, ongoing basic and clinical research has led to further understanding of relevant physiology, pathophysiology, epidemiology and genetics of PH/PAH. This guidelines from the working group of Pulmonary Hypertension of the Taiwan Society of Cardiology is to provide updated guidelines based on the most recent international guidelines as well as Taiwan's domestic research on PH. The guidelines are mainly for the management of PAH (Group 1) ; however the majority of content can be helpful for managing other types of PH.


BACKGROUND
Pulmonary arterial hypertension; Taiwan guidelines.
Department of Internal Medicine, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Tainan;
Chih-Hsin
CH
Hsu
Department of Internal Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou, Taoyuan;
Wan-Jing
WJ
Ho
Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung;
Wei-Chun
WC
Huang
Department of Internal Medicine, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, New Taipei City;
Yu-Wei
YW
Chiu
Department of Internal Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou, Taoyuan;
Tsu-Shiu
TS
Hsu
Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei;
Ping-Hung
PH
Kuo
Department of Surgery, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei;
Hsao-Hsun
HH
Hsu
Department of Pediatrics, Cheng-Hsin General Hospital, Taipei;
Jia-Kan
JK
Chang
Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung;
Chin-Chang
CC
Cheng
Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital Hsin-Chu Branch, Hsin-Chu;
Chao-Lun
CL
Lai
Cardiovascular Center, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung;
Kae-Woei
KW
Liang
Department of Internal Medicine, Yuan's General Hospital, Kaohsiung;
Shoa-Lin
SL
Lin
Department of Internal Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital Taipei;
Hsao-Hsun
HH
Sung
Department of Internal Medicine, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Tainan;
Wei-Chuan
WC
Tsai
Department of Pediatrics, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung;
Ken-Pen
KP
Weng
Department of Internal Medicine, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Tainan;
Kai-Sheng
KS
Hsieh
Department of Internal Medicine, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Tainan;
Wei-Hsian
WH
Yin
Department of Internal Medicine, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Tainan;
Shing-Jong
SJ
Lin
Cardiovascular Center, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung; ; Department of Internal Medicine, Chung-Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Kuo-Yang
KY
Wang