What is Pulmonary Hypertension?
What is Pulmonary Hypertension?
Pulmonary hypertension is essentially high blood pressure in the arteries leading from the heart to the lungs.
As the pressure builds, the heart’s lower right chamber (right ventricle) must work harder to pump blood through the lungs, eventually causing the heart muscle to weaken.
Pulmonary hypertension may be a complicating factor in people with established heart and lung disease, but it may also happen to otherwise healthy individuals, especially women.
Symptoms
The main symptom of pulmonary hypertension is shortness of breath with exertion. The shortness of breath usually starts slowly and gets worse over time.
Often, a person notices he or she can't perform the same activity as before without becoming winded.
Other symptoms of pulmonary hypertension include:
- chest pain
- fatigue
- lethargy
- passing out suddenly
- swelling of the legs (edema)
