Dr.S.Venkatesan MD

The primary determinant of pulmonary artery systolic pressure is . . . ?

1. Pulmonary arterial tone
2. Pulmonary venous pressure
3. RV contractility
4. Pulmonary blood flow

Answer : All of the above

But what is the relative contribution of each ?

I am  100 %  sure  ,  no  one can answer this question  correctly !

It is  true  , in some  pathological situations  one can  be  fairly certain about  cause of   elevated pulmonary arterial pressure .

When we confront a patient  with left heart disease  it is the transmission of  mean venous pressure .

Whatever be  our understanding ( Pre/Post capillary pulmonary hyper tension and the related stuff !  ), the one parameter that makes mystery contribution  to PA pressure is RV contractility !

In physiology  RV   generates  about 30mmhg systolic pressure that becomes the  pulmonary systolic  pressure .The  diastolic pressure  will be around 15 and mean around 20 . During exercise  contractility of both RV and LV increase .There has been documented PASP up to 50 mmhg in normal healthy adults during   exertion .

Here one can assume RV contractility is causing  a entity called transient Isolated  systolic  pulmonary arterial  hypertension.(ISPAH)

Consider a entirely different situation

A patient with COPD  with raised  PASP .  The right ventricle pressure has to equilibrate with PASP  during systole .For this to happen   it has to generate the 60mmhg .  If the RV fails  to augment it’s contractility for some reason ,  will the  ineffective RV contraction will  lower the  PASP  ? This is the perplexing question !

While the popular understanding is ,  RV dysfunction will under- estimate the severity of   pulmonary hypertension   . . . still  . . .  we are not sure whether RV dysfunction will  reduce the PASP   per-se  ( and  subsequently PA  diastolic pressure as well )

We often see a  good example  . A patient who develops tricuspid valve disease and RV  dysfunction get symptomatic relief  from  lung congestion .

Final message

The relationship between RV function and pulmonary artery pressure is a real enigma. Though hyper functioning  RV is expected to elevate PASP  and hypo functioning  RV would pull  it down  , the relationship  is not that simple. If only we decode this  mysteries   we can try  specific  RV negative inotropic  agents  as a  modality to treat pulmonary hypertension .

After thought

Total artificial hearts  are going to come in a big way in the coming decades .It  will specifically address this issue  ,  as RV and LV contractility  need to  be individually tuned to avoid pulmonary congestion.

Coming soon

While  RV function is critical for human survival  ,  Fontan  principle  simply says entire RV is dispensable . How ?