Therapeutic approaches in adults with congenital heart disease-associated pulmonary arterial hypertension

Abstract

Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a major contributor to reduced functional capacity in patients with congenital heart disease. Expert care is essential. Whilst careful supportive management has traditionally been the mainstay for these patients, in recent times significant improvements in exercise capacity and even survival have been observed with the use of disease-targeted therapy, including endothelin receptor antagonists, phosphodiesterase inhibitors and prostanoids. In this review we will discuss current therapeutic options and summarise the recent literature on disease-targeted therapy.

Keywords

• Atrial septal defect
• congenital heart disease
• Eisenmenger syndrome
• left-to-right shunt
• pulmonary arterial hypertension
• ventricular septal defect