Pulmonary hypertension includes those disorders that are characterized by an increase in arterial blood pressure in the lung. As a consequence, the oxygen supply to the body is inadequate. Therapy has, however, made a great deal of progress in recent years, so that the prognosis for pulmonary hypertension has improved considerably. Since pulmonary hypertension can have different causes, development of personalized treatment procedures is of particular importance.
According to Simonneau et al., PH can be divided into five subgroups:
Together, all PH variations affect an estimated 100 million people worldwide.
Vascular pathology is characterized by pulmonary vasoconstriction as well as abnormal (pseudomalignant) alteration processes. According to Rabinovitch et al., possibly all vascular layers (intima, media and adventitia) are affected.