Physicians at Rush Tackle Pulmonary Hypertension

Pulmonary Hypertension is a  complex disease that can be difficult to diagnose and requires extremely personalized treatment.  Cardiologists and pulmonologists at Rush University Medical Center have pooled their knowledge and resources and created the Rush Pulmonary Hypertension Clinic to provide a new and better approach to treating patients with pulmonary hypertension.

Pulmonary hypertension is high pressure in the arteries that lead from the heart to the lungs. Due to the high pressure, the right ventricle of the heart must pump harder, ultimately causing heart failure or other potentially fatal complications.

It is difficult to diagnose because its symptoms are nonspecific and mimic the symptoms of other lung or heart disease. Sixty percent of patients will have shortness of breath as the initial symptoms. Other symptoms include fatigue, chest pain, fainting, palpitations and leg swelling.

A diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension once meant a very dire prognosis. However, recent advances in the diagnosis and management of this complex disease have changed outcomes dramatically.

In the 25 years since I started my practice, says Dr. James Calvin, director of the Section of Cardiology at Rush, treatments for pulmonary hypertension have come a long way. There are new guidelines, new research and more is becoming known about pulmonary hypertension.

To learn more about the Rush Pulmonary Hypertension Clinic read the press release.

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