PAH or pulmonary arterial hypertension is also known as primary pulmonary hypertension. It is a very rare hypertension disease that affects your capillaries and arteries. The blood from the right ventricles of your heart flows into your lungs through these vessels. When the pressure in your arteries arises, your heart has to work much harder to pump the blood and as a result, it weakens the heart muscles. This can result in death as well. You cannot be cured of primary pulmonary hypertension. However, there are treatment options available for you to cope with it.
Symptoms
During the early stages of the primary pulmonary hypertension, you will not get any such noticeable symptoms. However, as your condition gets from bad to worse, there will be some symptoms that will get more and more noticeable. These symptoms include:
You will find it difficult to breathe when you exercise or perform any other type of physical activity. Also, you might find it difficult to breathe even at the time when you are taking rest.
Causes
PAH happens when the capillaries and the arteries which carry the blood from the heart to the lungs gets destroyed or constricted. This happens due to multiple reasons. But the exact reason for primary pulmonary hypertension is yet to be discovered by the doctors and scientists. According to research, almost 15% to 20% of the people who suffer from PAH in the country have it hereditarily. This is due to the mutation that takes place in the BMPR2 gene or other genes. This genetic mutation can continue to happen from generation to generation leaving someone a chance to develop this disease at the later part of their life. However, there are other medical conditions that can be associated as the potential cause for PAH. These medical conditions include:
These are not the only causes for PAH to develop. As already stated, there is no specific cause for PAH, or even if it’s there, it is still unknown to the doctors and scientists. When PAH develops without any related reasons, it is called idiopathic PAH.
Diagnosis
When your doctor thinks that you have primary pulmonary hypertension, he or she will ask you to do certain tests to assess the condition of your arteries and heart. These tests for PAH diagnosis will include:
You doctors will make you go through these tests just to find out the signs of PAH and also other causes for the symptoms you are having. Doctors generally look to rule out any other probable causes before determining that you are suffering from PAH.
Treatment
At present, there is no permanent cure for primary pulmonary hypertension. However, there are certain treatment options which will decrease the risk of complications and get you a prolonged life.
PAH is one such disease that worsens with time. Therefore, early detection and treatment will increase the life expectancy of the patient. That is why a medical consultation with your doctor is extremely important if you have any of the aforementioned conditions.
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