A new study sheds light on the range of pulmonary vascular resistance associated with mortality and heart failure in certain patients at risk for pulmonary hypertension.
Researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study of 40,082 patients (median age, 66.5 years; 96.7% male) undergoing right heart catheterization in the U.S. Veterans Affairs healthcare system from October 2007 through September 2016. Patients were included if they had complete right heart catheterization and were followed for at least 1 year. Fifty-eight percent of patients had a history of heart failure and 33.3% had a history of COPD. Eighty-one percent of patients were at risk for pulmonary hypertension based on an elevated mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP) of at least 19 mm Hg.
The primary outcome was time to all-cause mortality assessed by the Veteran Affairs vital status file. Results showed that the all-cause mortality hazard for pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) was increased at 2.2 Wood units compared PVR of 1.0 Wood unit, when modeled as a continuous variable.
