Types of Pulmonary Hypertension
NewYork-Presbyterian provides comprehensive, lifelong care for the following types of pulmonary hypertension:
Group 1, pulmonary arterial hypertension, is a rare disease in which the inner lining of the smaller pulmonary arteries are diseased and blood flow through the vessels is impaired. Group 1 PH is often idiopathic (no identifiable cause), or it may be caused by hereditary factors, related to congenital heart disease with shunts, connective tissue disease, HIV, liver disease, and some “zebra diagnoses” (surprising diagnoses). Increasingly, we have more medications to stabilize and chronically treat this condition. Occasionally we can only detect exercise-induced pulmonary hypertension.
Group 2, pulmonary hypertension due to left heart disease, is the most common cause of the disease, with therapy focused on the left heart.
Group 3, pulmonary hypertension due to lung disease, often involves low oxygen levels and disordered breathing mechanics.
Group 4, pulmonary hypertension due to chronic thromboembolic disease (blood clots in the lungs), can be successfully treated with surgery or catheter-based interventional approaches. For this surgery, we have surgeons who have been specially trained in the pulmonary thromboendarectomy surgery. Less frequently there are special balloon catheters that are used to treat non-surgical candidates or more distal vessels, and sometimes as a hybrid approach. Learn More about PERT
Group 5 includes pulmonary hypertension that results from blood and other rare disorders including sarcoid, hemolytic anemia (thalassemia, sickle cell disease), hemodialysis patients or myeloproliferative diseases.
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