Medical Author: Siamak Nabili, MD, MPH
Medical Editor: William C. Shiel, Jr., MD, FACP, FACR
The human body has two major sets of blood vessels that distribute blood from the heart to the body. One set pumps blood from the right heart to the lungs and the other from the left heart to the rest of the body.
The left ventricle of the heart pumps oxygenated blood (blood that has been reloaded with oxygen in the lungs) from the lungs into the systemic circulation. When a doctor or a nurse measures the blood pressure on a person's arm, he/she is measuring the pressures in the systemic circulation. When these pressures are abnormally high, the person is diagnosed as having high blood pressure (hypertension).
The right ventricle pumps blood returning from the body into the pulmonary arteries to the lungs to receive oxygen. The pressures in the lung arteries (pulmonary arteries) are normally significantly lower than the pressures in the systemic circulation. When pressure in the pulmonary circulation becomes abnormally elevated, it is referred to as pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary artery hypertension, or PAH.
Pulmonary hypertension generally results from constriction, or stiffening, of the pulmonary arteries that supply blood to the lungs. Consequently, it becomes more difficult for the heart to pump blood forward through the lungs. This stress on the heart leads to enlargement of the right heart and eventually fluid can build up in the liver and other tissues, such as the in the legs.
Please describe your symptoms of pulmonary hypertension.
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