Abstract

NAVAL, Norma. Epidemiology of pulmonary hypertension. Insuf. card. [online]. 2010, vol.5, n.4, pp.192-196. ISSN 1852-3862.

As a topic of clinical medicine and medicine science, pulmonary hypertension (PH) has made great progresses in a relatively short time. It has been studied for more than a century, when in 1891 Ernest Von Romberg described morphological changes of pulmonary arteries for the first time. Nevertheless, medical community interest began in 1973 with the first international meeting held in Geneva dedicated to "primary" PH, when PH incidence had increased significantly due to anorexigen aminorex fumarate. Subsequently in 1981, the American National Registry was started, systematizing information about epidemiology and natural history of this disease. Within past decades interest in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) has increased, being reflected in the large amount of publications about diagnosis, poor prognostic indicators, new drugs and knowledge of its pathogenesis. Larger and latest registries where reported in France 2006 and Switzerland 2007, with data that reinforce that PAH is a rare disease, but that there are notable differences with PAH associated with underlying conditions. This shows the importance of national registries for the identification of regional characteristics of the disease. Unfortunately, there are no epidemiological data available in most countries, including ours that has sub-registry evidences. We must reinforce programs towards a better knowledge of this disease, and propel a unique data registry.

Keywords : Pulmonary arterial hypertension; Epidemiology; Registry.

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