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Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) News
In September 2000, Katie, then a third-grader at Myers Elementary
School, told her mom her heart hurt. Less than two weeks later,
she was diagnosed with primary pulmonary hypertension, a rare
and incurable disease that causes the lungs to filter blood
slower. This leads to a backup in the heart, which causes
it to swell.
Bone marrow stem cells could restore circulation to injured
blood vessels in people with pulmonary hypertension, suggests
a study in rats. Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a progressive
disease that can affect the arterioles and capillaries that
supply blood to the lungs and raise blood pressure in the
arteries between the heart and lungs to abnormally high levels.
November is Pulmonary Hypertension Awareness Month. Over
100,000 people in the United States are known to suffer with
pulmonary hypertension, a disease that has no known cause
or cure. Symptoms of pulmonary hypertension include shortness
of breath, chronic fatigue, dizziness and fainting - although
because its symptoms mimic other illnesses, the disease is
often misdiagnosed. There may be thousands of individuals
with pulmonary hypertension who have not yet been diagnosed.
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