Pulmonary hypertension is high blood pressure in the arteries to the lungs. It can stem from heart or lung disease, blood clots, or unknown causes. Treatment depends on the underlying cause and may include medications that widen blood vessels, diuretics, oxygen, and in severe cases lung transplant.
What's actually going on in research
Trials are testing combinations of existing vasodilators, newer drugs targeting different pathways in the blood vessel wall, and treatments for forms of pulmonary hypertension caused by left heart disease where options have been limited. Researchers are also studying exercise programs, earlier diagnosis methods, and whether treating the right ventricle directly can improve outcomes.
Combination therapy
Studies are testing whether using three medications together—each targeting a different pathway—works better than the current approach of adding drugs one at a time. Early results suggest some people respond better to upfront combination treatment.
Left heart disease treatments
Most pulmonary hypertension drugs are approved only for pulmonary arterial hypertension, a rarer form. Trials are now testing whether some of these medications help people whose pulmonary hypertension comes from left heart failure.
Sotatercept
This drug works differently from existing medications by rebalancing growth signals in blood vessel walls. FDA approved it in 2024 for pulmonary arterial hypertension after trials showed it improved exercise capacity and slowed disease progression.
What to know before you search
Eligibility typically depends on pulmonary hypertension type and severity, current medications, exercise capacity measured by six-minute walk distance, and whether other heart or lung conditions are present.
What types of trials are currently open
- Drug trials — Testing new vasodilators or combinations of existing drugs to see if they improve exercise capacity, symptoms, and survival.
- Device trials — Studying implanted devices that create a small opening between heart chambers to relieve pressure, mostly for people who don't respond to medications.
- Exercise studies — Testing whether supervised exercise or rehabilitation programs are safe and helpful for people with pulmonary hypertension.
- Diagnostic studies — Evaluating imaging techniques or biomarkers that might catch pulmonary hypertension earlier or predict who will respond to which treatment.
- Registry studies — Following large groups of people with pulmonary hypertension over time to learn what affects outcomes and quality of life.
Recently added Pulmonary Hypertension trials
Take an extra dose of blood pressure medication before exercise
The goal of this clinical study is to investigate whether the additional intake of sildenafil 20mg on top of standard medical treatment results in a benefit on maximum exercise workload (Wmax) in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).
Share your quality of life experiences through a brief questionnaire
Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a severe and heterogeneous condition associated with poor prognosis and significant impairment in quality of life. Patient-reported outcome questionnaires are useful, low-cost tools for clinical assessment and risk stratification. The EmPHasis-10 questionnaire is a brief and easy-to-administer instrument that has demonstrated good correlation with clinical outcomes across different PH populations; however, a validated Brazilian Portuguese version is not yet available. This study aims to translate, culturally adapt, and validate the EmPHasis-10 questionnaire for Brazilian patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). The investigators designed a cross-sectional observational study including 50 adult patients with a confirmed diagnosis of PAH (group 1) or CTEPH (group 4), followed at the Pulmonary Circulation Outpatient Clinic of Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre. The EmPHasis-10-BR will be administered alongside the SF-36 questionnaire for concurrent validity analysis, as well as frailty assessment instruments. Reliability will be evaluated through test-retest analysis in both in-person and remote settings. Clinical, functional, and hemodynamic variables will also be collected to investigate associations between EmPHasis-10-BR scores and risk stratification parameters recommended by international guidelines. Statistical analyses will include Cronbach's alpha to assess internal consistency, Spearman's correlation coefficients for test-retest reliability, and comparisons with previously validated instruments. The investigators expect that the validation of the EmPHasis-10-BR will provide a practical, reliable, and culturally appropriate tool for quality-of-life assessment in Brazilian patients with PH, supporting standardized clinical follow-up, risk stratification, and potentially contributing to therapeutic decision-making.
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