Hello and welcome to the zero to finals podcast.

My name is Tom, and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about pulmonary hypertension.

If you want to follow along with written notes on this topic, you can follow along at

zero to finals.com slash pulmonary hypertension or in the respiratory section of the zero to finals medicine book.

So let's get straight into it.

Pulmonary hypertension is increased resistance and pressure of blood in the pulmonary arteries.

Increasing the pressure and resistance in the pulmonary arteries causes strain on the right

hand side of the heart as it tries to

pump blood through the lungs. This also causes a back pressure of blood into the systemic venous system.

What causes pulmonary hypertension? Well the causes of pulmonary hypertension can be split into

five groups. Group one is primary pulmonary hypertension or when a

connective tissue disorder such as systemic lupus erythematosis causes increased resistance in those vessels.

Group 2 is caused by left heart failure, usually due to a myocardal infarction or systemic hypertension that causes

a back pressure into the pulmonary vessels. Group three is caused by chronic lung disease such as COPD.

Group four is pulmonary vascular disease such as pulmonary embolism, and if you have a pulmonary embolism,

this creates more pressure and resistance in those pulmonary vessels. And group five is a set of

miscellaneous causes, such as sarcoidosis, glycogen storage diseases, and hematological disorders.

Let's talk about the signs and symptoms of pulmonary hypertension.

The main presenting symptom is shortness of breath.

Other signs and symptoms are things like syncope, which is dizziness.

Tachycardia or a fast heart rate.

A raised JVP due to the back pressure into the systemic venous system,

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