PPH NEWS is an education-based resource site that provides information on the health issues surrounding Primary Pulmonary Hypertension (PPH), including what it is, the symptoms, diagnoses, and treatment options.
This website also provides resource to learn more about your legal rights and remedies if you or someone you know has developed PPH due to the use of diet drugs such as Fen Phen.

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Causes of PH

Pulmonary hypertension is a disorder of the blood vessels in the lungs, occurring when the blood pressure in the pulmonary arteries becomes higher than normal. Because of the strain on the right side of the heart, pulmonary hypertension, or PH, is a serious problem.

PH affects an estimated 50,000 people in the United States, 15,000 of which have been diagnosed and prescribed treatment, according to CoTherix, a pharmaceutical firm in northern California. The rare disorder can cause symptoms including chronic fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain, fainting, swollen ankles and abdominal fluid build up.

Despite the impact PH has, the causes of PH are sometime unknown. There are many different causes of PH in some instances, but when the cause is not known, the disorder is called primary pulmonary hypertension, or PPH.

Common causes of secondary PH include emphysema and chronic bronchitis, as well as congestive heart failure, birth defects in the heart, chronic pulmonary thromboembolism, HIV infection and certain medicines. The drugs most commonly linked to causes of PH are the recalled, once highly popular diet drugs fenfluramine and dexfenfluramine.

Regardless of the causes of PH, both primary and secondary types are usually permanent conditions, though treatment in some instances can help better manage symptoms. Because pulmonary hypertension symptoms can be easily attributed to so many other health problems, understanding the causes of PH and then properly diagnosing it can be very difficult.

People with high risk factors for causes of PH should alert their physicians about these aspects. Although the fen phen diet drug combination was recalled in 1997, and a class action lawsuit against fen phen manufacturer American Home Products followed shortly after, fen phen cases are still continuing.

The medical conditions suffered because of the use of the diet drugs, in addition to them being causes of PH, also were linked to heart valve problems. At the start of February 2005, Wyeth said that as many as 61,000 fen phen cases had yet to be resolved out of more than 70,000 filed so far. Wyeth bought American Home Products and assumed liability for the fen phen recall.

In order to find out if the symptoms suffered are because of pulmonary hypertension, a doctor may perform an echocardiogram to estimate the pressure in the pulmonary arteries. If diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension, and the doctor knows the causes of PH, treating the cause is possible and can sometimes help. Methods of treating certain causes of PH can include calcium channel blockers, breathing oxygen from a tank or blood thinning medicines.

For those who are not responsive to medication, a lung transplant may be the only option, according to experts.

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