Clinical outcomes vary across subtypes of pulmonary arterial hypertension
"Circulating Markers of Inflammation and Angiogenesis and Clinical Outcomes Across Subtypes of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension"
Dr. Kellen Hirsch is lead author and Drs. Peter Leary and Samuel Rayner are co-senior authors. Co-authors from the Department of Medicine are Drs. David Ralph and William Altemeier.
A recent study examined how markers of inflammation and angiogenesis in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension were related to clinical outcomes across disease subtypes.
This was a translational retrospective study that explored how cytokine levels were associated with mortality, and how the strength of those connections depended on specific disease subtypes.
Patients with connective tissue disease-associated pulmonary hypertension generally had an elevated cytokine profile compared to other subtypes. Some of these cytokine elevations were associated with higher rates of patient mortality. In some cases, cytokines were associated with mortality in the connective tissue disease subtype but were found to be less important in other subtypes.
"While patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension are often grouped together in clinical trial regardless of their subtype, our findings support that a more subtype specific focus may be warranted," says Dr. Kellen Hirsch, internal medicine resident and lead author on the paper.
This research was made possible, in part, by the internal medicine residency Physician Scientist Learning Pathway, which provided both the protected time and mentorship needed to accomplish this project.