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Updated: Aug 20, 2026

Increasing Pulmonary Artery Pulsatile Flow Improves Hypoxic Pulmonary Hypertension in Piglets
Published on: May 11, 2015
Marked improvement with sildenafil in a patient with primary pulmonary hypertension unresponsive to epoprostenol
Masaharu Kataoka1, Toru Satoh, Tomohiro Manabe
1Cardiopulmonary Division, Department of Medicine, Keio University School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-8582.
Abstract:
We report a 48-year-old woman with right heart failure due to primary pulmonary hypertension. Continuous infusion of epoprostenol (prostaglandin I2) for 1.5 years failed to control her condition, but she was later successfully treated with additional sildenafil for a few months. Her mean pulmonary artery pressure was originally 57 mmHg, increased to 62 mmHg with epoprostenol, and decreased to 45 mmHg with sildenafil. Additional sildenafil may be an effective and life-saving agent in patients with primary pulmonary hypertension who show a poor response to epoprostenol, which is considered to be very powerful medical treatment for the disease.
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