Right heart catheterization remains the gold standard for diagnosing pulmonary hypertension in pregnancy, defined as a mean pulmonary artery pressure of more than 20 mm Hg.
Pregnancy in women with pulmonary hypertension remains a high-risk condition requiring high clinical suspicion and careful management, though recent therapeutic advances offer improved prognosis.
Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a disease, which targets the pulmonary vasculature affecting the heart and the lungs, and is characterized by a vast array of signs and symptoms. These manifestations of PH in pregnancy are highly variable and non-specific hence, it is prudent to have a very keen and high index of suspicion while evaluating these patients. This rare disease can be extremely debilitating and can be associated with a poor overall prognosis. Pregnancy in women with PH puts them at an elevated risk because the physiological changes associated with pregnancy are not well endured leading to even higher morbidity and mortality in these patients. Although there are various modalities for evaluation and workup of PH, right heart catheterization (RHC) remains the gold standard. A mean pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) of more than 20 mm of Hg is considered diagnostic. It is indeed heartening to see that in the past decade many novel therapeutic modalities have emerged and along with a better understanding of the disease process have proved to be promising in terms of reducing the adverse outcomes and preventing death in this population of patients.
Anjum et al. (Thu,) conducted a review in Pulmonary hypertension in pregnancy. Right heart catheterization remains the gold standard for diagnosing pulmonary hypertension in pregnancy, defined as a mean pulmonary artery pressure of more than 20 mm Hg.