Pulmonary heart disease

Pulmonary heart disease
Other names	Cor pulmonale
Right ventricular hypertrophy
Specialty	Pulmonology
Symptoms	Cyanosis, wheezing[1]
Causes	Primary pulmonary hypertension[2]
Diagnostic method	EKG, Thrombophilia screen[1]
Treatment	Vasodilators, Diuretics[3]

Pulmonary heart disease, also known as cor pulmonale, is the enlargement and failure of the right ventricle of the heart as a response to increased vascular resistance (such as from pulmonic stenosis) or high blood pressure in the lungs.^[2]

Chronic pulmonary heart disease usually results in right ventricular hypertrophy (RVH),^[4] whereas acute pulmonary heart disease usually results in dilatation.^[5] Hypertrophy is an adaptive response to a long-term increase in pressure. Individual muscle cells grow larger (in thickness) and change to drive the increased contractile force required to move the blood against greater resistance. Dilatation is a stretching (in length) of the ventricle in response to acute increased pressure.^[6]

To be classified as pulmonary heart disease, the cause must originate in the pulmonary circulation system; RVH due to a systemic defect is not classified as pulmonary heart disease. Two causes are vascular changes as a result of tissue damage (e.g. disease, hypoxic injury), and chronic hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction. If left untreated, then death may result. The heart and lungs are intricately related; whenever the heart is affected by a disease, the lungs risk following and vice versa. ^{[citation needed]}