Management of Patients With Pulmonary Hypertension in COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

The new coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has emerged as perhaps the biggest medical problem of our century. Although COVID-19 mainly affects the lungs, it also affects many organs, especially the cardiovascular system. Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a pulmonary vascular disease described by pulmonary arterial vasoconstriction and remodeling, which may lead to an increased pulmonary artery pressure with varying clinical course and severity depending on the etiology and eventually to right heart failure. Because of associated comorbidities, patients with PH are likely to face a potential risk of severe complications and mortality and unfortunately, they may have worse outcomes than other patients. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought us new and different challenges in the follow-up and treatment processes of patients with PH. For patients admitting to the hospital, it is important to balance the risk of exposure to COVID-19 with ongoing care and treatment services. However, the COVID-19 outbreak has brought serious challenges to PH centers to weigh the risks and benefits of diagnostic research, including potential exposure to COVID-19, and the timing of initiation of PH-specific treatment in high-risk patients. In this article, the management of PH patients during the COVID-19 pandemic;problems encountered in diagnosis, clinical follow-up and treatment processes;the different difficulties experienced during hospitalizations have been compiled.