Lessons learned in developing a chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension program.

Purpose Of Review: Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) is a deadly underdiagnosed form of pulmonary hypertension, traditionally treated with surgical extraction of thrombo-fibrotic lesions via pulmonary thrombendarterectomy (PTE) surgery. More recently, treatment options have expanded to pulmonary vasodilator medical therapy and balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA). This has led to increased awareness and detection of CTEPH, as well as growing interest in performing PTE and BPA.

Subcutaneous to intravenous prostacyclin analog transition in pulmonary hypertension.

Introduction: Prostacyclin analogs are Food and Drug Administration-approved therapies for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension and can be administered by inhalational, intravenous (IV), or subcutaneous (SQ) routes. Because there are limited data to guide the transition between SQ to IV prostacyclin analogs, we describe our experience.

Methods: We performed a retrospective review of patients with pulmonary hypertension diagnosed by right heart catheterization, who underwent transition from SQ to IV prostacyclin analogs.