Pulmonary hypertension is when you have high blood pressure in the arteries to your lungs. If you have it, the blood vessels that carry oxygen-poor blood from your heart to your lungs become hard and narrow and then your heart has to work harder to pump the blood through. Over time, your heart weakens and cannot do its job and you can develop heart failure. Symptoms of pulmonary hypertension include shortness of breath with minimal exertion, fatigue, chest pain, dizzy spells and fainting. Unfortunately, there are treatments but no cure.

Primary hypertension is one of two main kinds of pulmonary hypertension. Primary hypertension is hereditary -- it runs in families or appears for no known reason.

Secondary pulmonary hypertension is a complication of heart and lung disease.

Regardless, unrelieved pulmonary hypertension can lead to heart failure.

At our Pacific Campus we have a Pulmonary Hypertension Clinic, under the direction of Ernest Haeusslein, MD, Medical Director of Heart Failure/Heart Transplant, and Noreen Henig, MD, Medical Director of Advanced Lung Diseases.

We help evaluate and initiate treatment of pulmonary hypertension patients with NYHA Class II-IV symptoms. We offer all currently available medical treatments and ongoing consultative support if desired.

For questions about the Pulmonary Hypertension Clinic, please call 415-600-1051.