New pulmonary hypertension therapy created

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Dec. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. medical researchers have created a new therapy for patients suffering pulmonary arterial hypertension, or PAH.

The University of Michigan scientists found adding inhaled iloprost to treatment with bosentan -- two different classes of drugs often used individually to treat PAH -- increases exercise capability, reduces clinical deterioration and, in some cases, improves diagnostic functional class by one stage.

PAH is a debilitating and potentially fatal disease characterized by the progressive narrowing of blood vessels in the lungs. In 2000, there were 163,000 hospital discharges in which one diagnosis was PAH. Although more common in women ages 21 to 40, it can affect men or women at any age.

The randomized, multi-center study led by Dr. Vallerie McLaughlin and colleagues appears in the first December issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.