[Postpartum pulmonary hypertension].

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) in pregnancy is a rare disorder that carries a high risk to mother and child, and as such, it is considered a contraindication to becoming pregnant. However, there are few published reports related to the diagnosis of this condition after delivery. We describe three PH cases diagnosed after their normal pregnancies and deliveries.

Assessment of bronchodilator response through changes in lung volumes in chronic airflow obstruction.

Although FEV1 improvement is routinely used to define bronchodilator (BD) response, it correlates poorly with clinical effects. Changes in lung volumes (LV) have shown better correlation with exercise tolerance and might be more sensitive to detect BD effects. We assessed the additional contribution of measuring LV before and after BD to detect acute improvement in lung function not demonstrated by FEV1, and the influence of the response criteria selected on this contribution.