Tuberc Respir Dis.
2005 Aug;59(2):170-178.
Comparison of Clinical Features between Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension and Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension
- Affiliations
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- 1Department of Internal Medicine, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea. sdlee@amc.seoul.kr
- 2Department of Internal Medicine, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine, Cheonan, Korea.
- 3Department of Internal Medicine, University of Ulsan college of medicine, Ulsan University Hospital, Ulsan, Korea.
- 4Department of Internal Medicine, Hallym University College of Internal Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Abstract
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BACKGROUND: Idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH) and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) are rare but significantly imperative in inducing chronic pulmonary hypertension. Clinically, it is difficult to distinguish between IPAH and CTEPH. However, the treatment of pulmonary hypertension is different depending on the disease. The present study was performed to analyze the similarities and differences in clinical features between IPAH and CTEPH.
METHODS
During a nine-year period, thirty-three patients with IPAH and twenty-two patients with CTEPH were enrolled. Symptoms, physical findings, chest radiograph, electrocardiograph, pulmonary function test, echocardiograph, perfusion lung scan, right heart catheterization results were analyzed between both the groups.
RESULTS
The median age of IPAH group was 33 (6~70) years that was lower than that (52(27~80) years) of CTEPH group. Amongst the IPAH patients, there was female predominance (76 %) and there was no sex difference between the patients with CTEPH. Both the groups exhibited similarity in the results of chest radiograph, electrocardiograph, pulmonary function test, and echocardiograph. In the perfusion lung scan, all IPAH patients exhibited findings with normal (28%) or low probability (72%) of pulmonary embolism and all CTEPH patients exhibited findings with high probability of pulmonary embolism.
CONCLUSION
Although IPAH and CTEPH bear similarities in terms of symptoms, physical signs and general investigation results, there were differences in age distribution, sex predominance and results of perfusion lung scan.
