Patients with polycythemia vera (PV), a rare type of blood cancer, face a much greater risk of being diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), according to new research published in the American Journal of Cardiology.
The study’s authors explored data from more than 38,000 adult patients with PV and more than 39 million adult patients without PV. All data came from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample database.
While just 0.1% of patients had PV, 7.9% of those patients were diagnosed with PAH. Just 1.9% of patients without PV, however, were diagnosed with PAH. After adjusting for multiple factors, including age, gender and a prior history of pulmonary embolism, PV was still associated with a 3-fold higher risk of PAH.
Also, patients with PV and PAH are at a greater risk of in-hospital mortality and in-hospital cardiac arrest.
Gaining new information about PAH is crucial, the researchers observed, because it can be so harmful when not properly diagnosed and treated.
“Untreated PAH is associated with a high risk of death from ensuing right heart failure,” wrote lead author Jessica Maria Stempel, MD, department of internal medicine at Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, and colleagues. “If left unrecognized and untreated, it may lead to a decline in functional status and overall quality of life.”
The full analysis is available here.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.