Curative effect of target therapy on chronic thromboembolic pulmonary arterial hypertension

Objective To observe whether target therapy can improve the hemodynamic parameters,heart function and exercise tolerance in patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension(CTEPH). Methods Twenty-five CTEPH patients admitted to our hospital from March 2009 to March 2012 were enrolled in this study.Sixteen weeks after they were treated with oral endothelin receptor antagonist(bosentan),phosphodiesterase type-5 inhibitor(silaenafil),prostanoids(iloprost) alone or their combination,their 6-minute walking distance(6MWD),heart function and echocardiogram were reexamined. Results The 6MWD increased from(321±118) m to(351±102) m,the mean pulmonary artery pressure(mPAP) on echocardiogram decreasedfrom(53.96±9.23) mmHg to(46.36±10.95) mmHg,the tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion(TAPSE) increased from(1.3±0.4) cm to(1.4±0.3) cm,the cardiac index decreased from 0.71±0.19 to 0.64±0.19,and the N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide(NTproBNP) level decreased from(1 942.24±880.24) pg/ml to(861.22±378.31) pg/ml in the patients 16 weeks after treatment(P<0.05). Conclusion Target therapy is effective for CTEPH patients and can improve their hemodynamic parameters and exercise tolerance.