Prognostic Effect and Longitudinal Hemodynamic Assessment of Borderline Pulmonary Hypertension

Abstract
Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a highly morbid disease that develops from a primary pulmonary vasculopathy or secondary to chronic pulmonary, cardiac, or systemic illnesses.1-3 Pulmonary hypertension is currently defined by a mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP) value of at least 25 mm Hg on right heart catheterization (RHC),1 a definition “empirically and arbitrarily” established by a consensus gathering of PH experts in 1973.4 This mPAP threshold is not based on physiologic data; in fact, the mean (SD) mPAP in healthy patients is 14.0 (3.3) mm Hg,5 suggesting an upper limit of normal significantly less than 25 mm Hg.