Standard Therapies for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
After half a century of clinical experience and research, management of pulmonary arterial hypertension remains a challenge. Currently, data to support the use of standard therapies for pulmonary arterial hypertension (oxygen supplementation, diuretics, digoxin, anticoagulation, and calcium channel blockers) are mostly retrospective, uncontrolled prospective, or derived from other diseases with similar but not identical manifestations. In the absence of any further prospective, controlled studies, it is reasonable to use these therapies when they are tolerated. When these therapies are poorly tolerated, however, the threshold for discontinuation should be low.
aDivision of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, Penn State University-Hershey Medical Center, 500 University Drive, Hershey, PA 17033, USA
bUniversity of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 3400 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-4283, USA
cPulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, 51 N. 39th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
dPulmonary Vascular Disease Program, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, 51 N. 39th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
ABSTRACT