Original Article
Epidemiological and Clinical Profile of Pulmonary Hypertension: Data from an Indian Registry
Volume 1, Apr 2012
Rahul Mehrotra, MD, DNB, Manish Bansal, MD, DNB, Ravi R Kasliwal, MD, DM; Naresh Trehan, MD, Gurgaon, India
Background: Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is an uncommon but devastating disorder of the pulmonary vasculature. Demographic and clinical profile of Indian
patients with PH is not known.
Methods: The report describes demographic and clinical profile of the first 57 patients enrolled in an ongoing PH registry at the Medanta PH clinic. The diagnosis of
PH was based on right heart catheterization (12 patients) or echocardiographic findings (45 patients). All the patients were subjected to clinical examination, 6 minute
walk test, oxygen saturation measurement, and a comprehensive echocardiogram. Other relevant tests were performed to ascertain the etiology of PH.
Results: The mean age of the study population was 35.6 ± 14.3 years and 49.1% were males. Most patients (73.2%) were able to lead an independent life, 12
patients (21.4%) were dependent on others, and 3 patients (5.4%) required assistance for their daily-life activities. Dyspnea was the commonest presenting symptom (47 patients, 82.5%). In 58.2% of patients, the diagnosis of PH was established during the initial month of symptom onset (median delay in diagnosis from the symptom onset – 1 month, interquartile range 1–33 months). Delays of 1–5 years were seen in 25.5% and more than 5 years in 10.1%. Maximum number of patients belonged to type I PH.
Conclusions: The present registry data provides novel information on the clinical and epidemiological features of all types of PH in the subcontinent in the current
era of awareness and treatment. Some of the findings are quite similar to the western data but some observations are unique. There remains a need to spread
awareness about PH since it occurs in association with myriad diseases and the diagnosis is still made quite late in a substantial number of patients.
Volume 1, Number 1, Page: 51-7
Full text of this article:
HTML
|
PDF
Print: ISSN: 2250-3528
