Frequency of pulmonary hypertension in transthoracic echocardiography screening is not increased in Takayasu arteritis: Experience from a single center in Turkey

Creative Commons License

KALFA M., emmungil h., MUSAYEV O., GÜNDÜZ Ö. S., YILMAZ Z., İNAL V., ...More

European Journal of Rheumatology, vol.5, no.4, pp.249-253, 2018 (TRDizin)

Abstract

Objective: Pulmonary hypertension (PH) may occur in Takayasu arteritis (TA), mostly due to pulmonaryarteritis, but also due to left heart disease and/or chronic thromboembolism (CTE). Using transtho-racic echocardiography (TTE), we investigated the frequency of PH caused by pulmonary arteritis.Methods: This cross-sectional study included 70 patients with TA fulfilling the 1990 ACR criteria, 68healthy controls, and 67 patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) fulfilling the 1980 ACR criteria repre-senting the disease control group. Patients with severe left heart disease or CTE were excluded. TheESC-ERS guideline definition was considered for diagnosis of PH.Results: The mean systolic pulmonary artery pressure (SPAP) values in TA, SSc, and healthy controlgroups were 20.93±6.06, 31.57±12.75, and 18.88±5.39 mmHg, respectively. While the SPAP valueswere similar between TA and healthy groups, the SPAP values in the SSc group were significantlyhigher than in other groups. Based on conventional and/or magnetic resonance angiography find-ings, pulmonary arteritis was present in 4 out of 70 TA patients; however, PH was not detected in anypatients with TA, including those with pulmonary arteritis.Conclusion: The TTE findings suggested that the frequency of PH was not increased in TA. However, alow frequency of pulmonary arteritis in our series might have affected our results.