ACCF/AHA 2009 Expert Consensus Document on Pulmonary Hypertension: A Report of the American College of Cardiology Foundation Task Force on Expert Consensus Documents and the American Heart Association: Developed in Collaboration With the American College of Chest Physicians, American Thoracic Society, Inc., and the Pulmonary Hypertension Association

ACS
: acute coronary syndrome
AMPLIFY
: Apixaban for the Initial Management of Pulmonary Embolism and Deep-Vein Thrombosis as First-line Therapy
aPTT
: activated partial thromboplastin time
b.i.d.
: bis in diem (twice daily)
b.p.m.
: beats per minute
BNP
: brain natriuretic peptide
BP
: blood pressure
CI
: confidence interval
CO
: cardiac output
COPD
: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
CPG
: Committee for Practice Guidelines
CRNM
: clinically relevant non-major
CT
: computed tomographic/tomogram
CTEPH
: chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension
CUS
: compression venous ultrasonography
DSA
: digital subtraction angiography
DVT
: deep vein thrombosis
ELISA
: enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
ESC
: European Society of Cardiology
H-FABP
: heart-type fatty acid-binding protein
HIT
: heparin-induced thrombocytopenia
HR
: hazard ratio
ICOPER
: International Cooperative Pulmonary Embolism Registry
ICRP
: International Commission on Radiological Protection
INR
: international normalized ratio
iPAH
: idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension
IVC
: inferior vena cava
LMWH
: low molecular weight heparin
LV
: left ventricle/left ventricular
MDCT
: multi-detector computed tomographic (angiography)
MRA
: magnetic resonance angiography
NGAL
: neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin
NOAC(s)
: Non-vitamin K-dependent new oral anticoagulant(s)
NT-proBNP
: N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide
o.d.
: omni die (every day)
OR
: odds ratio
PAH
: pulmonary arterial hypertension
PE
: pulmonary embolism
PEA
: pulmonary endarterectomy
PEITHO
: Pulmonary EmbolIsm THrOmbolysis trial
PESI
: pulmonary embolism severity index
PH
: pulmonary hypertension
PIOPED
: Prospective Investigation On Pulmonary Embolism Diagnosis
PVR
: pulmonary vascular resistance
RIETE
: Registro Informatizado de la Enfermedad Thromboembolica venosa
RR
: relative risk
rtPA
: recombinant tissue plasminogen activator
RV
: right ventricle/ventricular
SPECT
: single photon emission computed tomography
sPESI
: simplified pulmonary embolism severity index
TAPSE
: tricuspid annulus plane systolic excursion
Tc
: technetium
TOE
: transoesophageal echocardiography
TTR
: time in therapeutic range
TV
: tricuspid valve
UFH
: unfractionated heparin
V/Q scan
: ventilation–perfusion scintigraphy
VKA
: vitamin K antagonist(s)
VTE
: venous thromboembolism

Guidelines summarize and evaluate all available evidence at the time of the writing process, on a particular issue with the aim of assisting health professionals in selecting the best management strategies for an individual patient, with a given condition, taking into account the impact on outcome, as well as the risk-benefit-ratio of particular diagnostic or therapeutic means. Guidelines and recommendations should help the health professionals to make decisions in their daily practice. However, the final decisions concerning an individual patient must be made by the responsible health professional(s) in consultation with the patient and caregiver as appropriate.

A great number of Guidelines have …

/pdf/2014-esc-guidelines-on-the-diagnosis-and-management-of-acute-1f9ulv0b8w.pdf

2014 ESC Guidelines on the diagnosis and management of acute pulmonary embolism

Guidelines summarize and evaluate available evidence with the aim of assisting health professionals in proposing the best management strategies for an individual patient with a given condition. Guidelines and their recommendations should facilitate decision making of health professionals in their daily practice. However, the final decisions concerning an individual patient must be made by the responsible health professional(s) in consultation with the patient and caregiver as appropriate.

/pdf/2019-esc-guidelines-for-the-diagnosis-and-management-of-4aacwvv1mo.pdf

2019 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of acute pulmonary embolism developed in collaboration with the European respiratory society (ERS)

New @ESCardio Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Acute #PulmonaryEmbolism developed in collaboration with @EuroRespSoc now available: #cardiotwitter @erspublicationshttp://bit.ly/2HnrJaj

https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/early/2019/08/29/13993003.01647-2019.full.pdf

2019 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of acute pulmonary embolism developed in collaboration with the European Respiratory Society (ERS) : The Task Force for the diagnosis and management of acute pulmonary embolism of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC)

Much has been published in the past 20 years on the use of measurements of arterial stiffness in animal and human research studies. This summary statement was commissioned by the American Heart Association to address issues concerning the nomenclature, methodologies, utility, limitations, and gaps in knowledge in this rapidly evolving field. The following represents an executive version of the larger online-only Data Supplement and is intended to give the reader a sense of why arterial stiffness is important, how it is measured, the situations in which it has been useful, its limitations, and questions that remain to be addressed in this field. Throughout the document, pulse-wave velocity (PWV; measured in meters per second) and variations such as carotid-femoral PWV (cfPWV; measured in meters per second) are used. PWV without modification is used in the general sense of arterial stiffness. The addition of lowercase modifiers such as “cf” is used when speaking of specific segments of the arterial circulation.

The ability to measure arterial stiffness has been present for many years, but the measurement was invasive in the early times. The improvement in technologies to enable repeated, minimal-risk, reproducible measures of this aspect of circulatory physiology led to its incorporation into longitudinal cohort studies spanning a variety of clinical populations, including those at extreme cardiovascular risk (patients on dialysis), those with comorbidities such as diabetes mellitus (DM) and hypertension, healthy elders, and general populations.

In the ≈3 decades of clinical use of PWV measures in humans, we have learned much about the importance of this parameter. PWV has proven to have independent predictive utility when evaluated in conjunction with standard risk factors for death and cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, the field of arterial stiffness investigation, which has exploded over the past 20 years, has proliferated without logistical guidance for clinical and …

Recommendations for Improving and Standardizing Vascular Research on Arterial Stiffness: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association

Frank’s Windkessel model described the hemodynamics of the arterial system in terms of resistance and compliance. It explained aortic pressure decay in diastole, but fell short in systole. Therefore characteristic impedance was introduced as a third element of the Windkessel model. Characteristic impedance links the lumped Windkessel to transmission phenomena (e.g., wave travel). Windkessels are used as hydraulic load for isolated hearts and in studies of the entire circulation. Furthermore, they are used to estimate total arterial compliance from pressure and flow; several of these methods are reviewed. Windkessels describe the general features of the input impedance, with physiologically interpretable parameters. Since it is a lumped model it is not suitable for the assessment of spatially distributed phenomena and aspects of wave travel, but it is a simple and fairly accurate approximation of ventricular afterload.

/pdf/the-arterial-windkessel-cpafcmoscq.pdf

The arterial Windkessel

Noninvasively Assessed Pulmonary Artery Stiffness Predicts Mortality in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Right ventricular (RV) afterload is commonly defined as pulmonary vascular resistance, but this does not reflect the afterload to pulsatile flow. The purpose of this study was to quantify RV afterload more completely in patients with and without pulmonary hypertension (PH) using a three-element windkessel model. The model consists of peripheral resistance (R), pulmonary arterial compliance (C), and characteristic impedance (Z). Using pulmonary artery pressure from right-heart catheterization and pulmonary artery flow from MRI velocity quantification, we estimated the windkessel parameters in patients with chronic thromboembolic PH (CTEPH; n = 10) and idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH; n = 9). Patients suspected of PH but in whom PH was not found served as controls (NONPH; n = 10). R and Z were significantly lower and C significantly higher in the NONPH group than in both the CTEPH and IPAH groups (P < 0.001). R and Z were significantly lower in the CTEPH group than in the IPAH group (P < 0.05). The parameters R and C of all patients obeyed the relationship C = 0.75/R (R(2) = 0.77), equivalent to a similar RC time in all patients. Mean pulmonary artery pressure P and C fitted well to C = 69.7/P (i.e., similar pressure dependence in all patients). Our results show that differences in RV afterload among groups with different forms of PH can be quantified with a windkessel model. Furthermore, the data suggest that the RC time and the elastic properties of the large pulmonary arteries remain unchanged in PH.

Quantification of right ventricular afterload in patients with and without pulmonary hypertension.

The aim of this study was to investigate the contribution of direct right-to-left ventricular interaction to left ventricular filling and stroke volume in 46 patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and 18 control subjects. Stroke volume, right and left ventricular volumes, left ventricular filling rate, and interventricular septum curvature were measured by magnetic resonance imaging and left atrial filling by transesophageal echocardiography. Stroke volume, left ventricular end-diastolic volume, and left ventricular peak filling rate were decreased in PAH patients compared with control subjects: 28 +/- 13 vs. 41 +/- 10 ml/m(2) (P < 0.001), 46 +/- 14 vs. 61 +/- 14 ml/m(2) (P < 0.001), and 216 +/- 90 vs. 541 +/- 248 ml/s (P < 0.001), respectively. Among PAH patients, stroke volume did not correlate to right ventricular end-diastolic volume or mean pulmonary arterial pressure but did correlate to left ventricular end-diastolic volume (r = 0.62, P < 0.001). Leftward interventricular septum curvature was correlated to left ventricular filling rate (r = 0.64, P < 0.001) and left ventricular end-diastolic volume (r = 0.65, P < 0.001). In contrast, left atrial filling was normal and not correlated to left ventricular end-diastolic volume. In PAH patients, ventricular interaction mediated by the interventricular septum impairs left ventricular filling, contributing to decreased stroke volume.

Impaired left ventricular filling due to right-to-left ventricular interaction in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Aims Pulmonary arterial compliance ( C ) is increasingly being recognized as an important contributor to right ventricular afterload, but for monitoring of treatment of pulmonary hypertension (PH) most often still only pulmonary vascular resistance ( R ) is used. We aimed at testing the hypothesis that R and C are coupled during treatment of PH and that substantial changes in both R and C would result in more haemodynamic improvement than changes in R alone.

Methods and results Data were analysed of two right-heart catheterizations of 52 patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension and 10 with chronic-thromboembolic PH. The product of R and C (= stroke volume over pulse pressure) did not change during therapy ( P = 0.320), implying an inverse relationship. Changes in cardiac index correlated significantly ( P < 0.001) with changes in R ( R 2 = 0.37), better with changes in C ( R 2 = 0.66), and best with changes in both ( R 2 = 0.74).

Conclusion During therapy for PH, R and C remain inversely related. Therefore, changes in both R and C better explain changes in cardiac index than either of them alone. Not only resistance but also compliance plays a prominent role in PH especially in an early stage of the disease.

/pdf/pulmonary-vascular-resistance-and-compliance-stay-inversely-59qht8tyuh.pdf

Jan-Willem Lankhaar

Papers

The arterial Windkessel

Noninvasively Assessed Pulmonary Artery Stiffness Predicts Mortality in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Quantification of right ventricular afterload in patients with and without pulmonary hypertension.

Impaired left ventricular filling due to right-to-left ventricular interaction in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Pulmonary vascular resistance and compliance stay inversely related during treatment of pulmonary hypertension