Continued Progress in Therapy for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a devastating disorder characterized by precapillary pulmonary hypertension not caused by respiratory disease, obstruction of the pulmonary arteries, or certain less-common conditions. Idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension, heritable pulmonary arterial hypertension, and pulmonary arterial hypertension associated with a connective-tissue disease or exposure to drugs such as methamphetamine account for most cases in the developed world. For years, pulmonary arterial hypertension was considered to be an untreatable, progressive, and rapidly fatal condition.1 A new era of treatment for patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension began three decades ago. Investigations that were focused on imbalanced vasoconstriction and vasodilation produced groundbreaking . . .