PAH & Right Heart Cath

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So, Monday morning finally rolled around, and my rheumy called me first thing in the morning. He told me that my echo hadn't changed much from last year, but there was still a bit of high pressure in one of my arteries. Because pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is somewhat common, and a concern among scleroderma patients, he suggested that I have a right heart catheterization done. Then we could see if I need to go on medicine to reduce the high pressure, or just keep testing with echos every few months.

PAH is basically high blood pressure in the pulmonary artery, the blood vessel that carries blood from the heart to the lungs.It occurs when most of the very small arteries throughout the lungs narrow, which increases the resistance to blood flow through the lungs, which results in the heart having to work harder.

For a right heart cath they put a catheter in through your femoral artery (or through your neck) to the right side of the heart and passes it into the pulmonary artery so that it can test the pressure. It's weird to me to think about. Kind of crazy where we've gotten with medical sciences these days. I'm a bit nervous for it. Hopefully they can get some answers, and hopefully it goes well. I'll post more once it's done and over. Wish me luck!


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