Evaluation, Diagnosis, and Classification of Pulmonary Hypertension

Abstract

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a rare heterogenous disease characterized by elevated blood pressure in the lungs. Patients with PH require careful evaluation and management at an expert center. Understanding of the mechanisms underlying the development of PH has increased over the past two decades, and several treatment options for pulmonary arterial hypertension have emerged. Despite this progress, PH continues to carry high morbidity and mortality. The 6th World Symposium on Pulmonary Hypertension that occurred in late 2018 modified the clinical classification of PH into five groups. In this review, we focus on the evaluation and diagnosis of PH and discuss the updated clinical classification.

Keywords: classification; diagnosis; evaluation; pulmonary hypertension; screening.

Figure 1

Algorithm for diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension and identifying its cause(s). Reproduced with permission of the © ERS 2020: DOI: 10.1183/13993003.01904-2018. PH: pulmonary hypertension; V/Q: ventilation/perfusion; CTEPH: chronic thromboembolic PH