Primary pulmonary hypertension: follow-up of patients with and without anorectic drug intake

Abstract

Long-term follow-up of 75 patients with pulmonary hypertension developing their symptoms prior to 1970 was performed. Anorectic drug intake, survival, repeated haemodynamic measurements and past and present symptoms were evaluated. The higher incidence of pulmonary hypertension at that time was strongly related to anorectic drug intake. No difference in the long-term survival was found in patients with and without anorectic drug intake. None of the patients showed normalization of the pulmonary pressure and the changes were unpredictable from the values found at the initial measurements. Long-term survival is possible even in patients with very high pulmonary arterial pressure. Improvement of the haemodynamic indicators was more frequent in patients with anorectic drug intake. In approximately 30% of the patients with anorectic drug intake a decrease in symptoms was observed while in none of the other patients was such a decrease found. It therefore seems that at least some of the patients with pulmonary hypertension and a history of anorectic drug intake adapt themselves better than those without anorectic drug intake.