Pulmonary Hypertension, Explained in Under 2 Minutes
In this video, learn the definition of pulmonary hypertension and how it affects the pulmonary arteries and heart health.
Hypertension is something the United States is well aware of: It affects almost half of U.S. adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As you may already know, this refers to elevated pressure of blood against the walls of your arteries — most commonly known as high blood pressure.
Pulmonary hypertension, on the other hand, is a little different. It specifically refers to the blood pressure on your pulmonary arteries. These are the massive arteries that carry blood from the heart to the lungs, where the blood gets infused with oxygen.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023). Facts about hypertension.
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. (2023). Pulmonary hypertension.
Tucker, WD, et al. (2023). Anatomy, thorax, heart pulmonary arteries. StatPearls.
U.S. Library of Medicine. (2016). Pulmonary hypertension.
UpToDate. (2022). Pulmonary hypertension due to left heart disease (group 2 pulmonary hypertension) in adults.