Clinical research, especially randomized pharmaceutical clinical trials, poses many unique challenges compared to research in adult subjects. In pulmonary arterial hypertension, a disease characterized by high blood pressure of the lungs with increased pulmonary vascular resistance leading to right ventricular failure, there are 12 FDA-approved PAH-targeted therapies for adults. None of these medications are currently... more »

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a complex, progressive condition characterized by high blood pressure in the lungs. For several decades, oral anticoagulation has been recommended by some societies for patients with a specific form of PH called pulmonary arterial hypertension. However, the evidence currently supporting this recommendation is very limited. To date, no prospective randomized clinical trial has been completed... more »

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a complex, progressive condition characterized by high blood pressure in the lungs and restriction of flow through the pulmonary arterial system. Significant improvements have been made in medical management with through approved pulmonary vasodilator therapies. However, long-term right ventricular afterload reductions have still not yet been achieved. The process by which the... more »

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a complex, progressive condition characterized by high blood pressure in the lungs. The gold standard for measuring pressures in the pulmonary arteries is a right heart catheterization, where a special catheter is guided through the right side of the heart and into the pulmonary artery, the main vessel carrying blood to the lungs. This measurement is essential, as it allows physicians and... more »

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a complex, progressive condition characterized by high blood pressure in the lungs and restriction of flow through the pulmonary arterial system. Current PAH therapies mainly act of the vasoconstrictive component of the disease; however there is a widely accepted view that another contributor to the disease is an abnormal overgrowth of cells that line the pulmonary arteries, which... more »

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a complex, progressive condition characterized by high blood pressure in the lungs and restriction of flow through the pulmonary arterial system. A great increase in the treatment armamentarium has been noted for this rare disease in the past 20 years, with 12 new PAH-targeted therapies. Though these therapies do improve cardiac performance, this is most likely due to their primary... more »