What is Pulmonary Hypertension?

Pulmonary hypertension is the state of high blood pressure at the vessels carrying blood to the lungs, which are called the “pulmonary arteries”.

It’s different from the blood pressure measured from your arm by the monitör. The cardiac catheterisation performed by professional doctors is necessary to measure the blood pressure of those vessels coming through the lungs.

To grasp the concept of pulmonary hypertension better, the relationship and mutuality between the heart and the lungs should be understood primarily.

The blood circulation of the lungs

The blood returns to the heart from the body via the main veins. The oxygen concentration of this blood is too low because the majority of the circulating oxygen has already been used by the muscle tissue and the organs in the body.
The blood coming back to the heart via the veins is pumped to the vessel going to the lungs (pulmonary artery) by passing through the right atrium and then the right ventricle. The right side of the heart works in conditions of very low blood pressure.
The blood coming to the lungs is transported to the left side of the heart while being enriched with oxygen. Meanwhile, it is cleaned of the carbon dioxide.
The left side of the heart is a part working under high pressure and pumping the blood to the whole body.

What happens when you have pulmonary hypertension?

Pulmonary hypertension is the insufficiency of the right side of the heart to pump blood to the lungs. This situation may occur because of the occlusion, constriction or rupture of the vessels going to the lungs (pulmonary arteries). For that reason, the pressure in these vessels increases. In conclusion, the pressure of the right ventricle, whose duty is to pump blood to the lungs, also increases.
In time, the right ventricle gets weaker, and its pumping strength decreases while trying to deal with that high pressure. That’s the reason for the onset of the symptoms related to pulmonary hypertension.

Who has pulmonary hypertension?

Anybody can have pulmonary hypertension at any age. However, pulmonary arterial hypertension, which is a type of pulmonary hypertension, is seen more commonly in women. The research is leading us to think about the possibility of the relationship between the prevalence and the hormones.

As well as the unknown reasons, pulmonary hypertension can also occur as a result of connective tissue or pulmonary system-related diseases.