Prostacyclins in pulmonary hypertension treatment

Pulmonary hypertension is a rare, treacherous disease affecting the lungs and heart. Elevated pulmonary artery pressure (above 2.67 kPa) and pathologically high pulmonary vascular resistance are characteristic for this disease. This disease is insidiously progressive and often leads to sudden death mainly in middle and younger middle ages. Exhausting the traditional conservative means of treatment, lung/heart-lung transplantation offers the only possibility to improve the quality of patient's life. Nowadays more and more reports about the successful application of intravenous prostacyclin for treatment of this disease appear in specialized literature. Epoprostenol (prostacyclin PGI2) represents a new, potent drug for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension. The objective of this paper is to introduce prostacyclin PGI2 to experts and demonstrate new possibilities, procedures, trends in treatment of pulmonary hypertension. (Tab. 1, Ref. 30.).