Search for patients with pulmonary hypertension at the Hospital Universitario San Ignacio

Búsqueda de pacientes con hipertensión pulmonar en el Hospital Universitario San Ignacio

Objective: to describe the prevalence of pulmonary hypertension, as assessed by echocardiography, in patients with or without indication for active search of pulmonary hypertension, at San Ignacio University Hospital, over the period from January 2004 to June 2012.

Materials and methods: descriptive, cross-cut study, in which the clinical histories of patients with or without indication for active search of pulmonary hypertension were reviewed, taking into account a background of systemic sclerosis and cirrhosis of the liver, candidates for liver transplant, in the first group, and patients with end-stage kidney disease and cirrhosis of the liver and portal hypertension who were not candidates for liver transplant, in the second group.

Results: 331 clinical records were reviewed, 39,5% of which had an echocardiogram at some moment of the study period. in the group of patients with indication for active search, a 25%-prevalence of pulmonary hypertension was found in patients with systemic sclerosis, and a 27,9%-prevalence was found in patients with cirrhosis and indication for liver transplant. in the group of patients without indication for active search, the prevalence of pulmonary hypertension was 51% in patients with end-stage kidney disease, and 35,71% in patients with cirrhosis and portal hypertension without indication for liver transplant.

Conclusions: in our community, the prevalence of pulmonary hypertension as determined by echocardiography is higher than that reported globally. However, echocardiography is not performed as a screening test in an important percentage of patients.