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Use of β-Blockers in Pulmonary Hypertension
Frédéric Perros1, Frances S de Man2, Harm J Bogaard2
1From the University Paris-Sud, Faculté de Médecine, Université Paris-Saclay, Le Kremlin Bicêtre, France (F.P., F.A., G.S., M.H.); AP-HP, Service de Pneumologie, Hôpital Bicêtre, Le Kremlin Bicêtre, France (F.P., F.A., G.S., M.H.); Inserm UMR_S 999, Hôpital Marie Lannelongue, Le Plessis Robinson, France (F.P., F.A., G.S., M.H.); Department of Pulmonology, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (F.S.d.M., H.J.B.); Pulmonary Hypertension Research Group, Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire de Cardiologie et de Pneumologie de Québec, Université Laval, Ville de Québec, Canada (S.B., S.P.); Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine-DIMES, University of Bologna, Italy (N.G.). frederic.perros@inserm.fr.
Abstract:
Contrasting with the major attention that left heart failure has received, right heart failure remains understudied both at the preclinical and clinical levels. However, right ventricle failure is a major predictor of outcomes in patients with precapillary pulmonary hypertension because of pulmonary arterial hypertension, and in patients with postcapillary pulmonary hypertension because of left heart disease. In pulmonary hypertension, the status of the right ventricle is one of the most important predictors of both morbidity and mortality. Paradoxically, there are currently no approved therapies targeting the right ventricle in pulmonary hypertension. By analogy with the key role of β-blockers in the management of left heart failure, some authors have proposed to use these agents to support the right ventricle function in pulmonary hypertension. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on the use of β-blockers in pulmonary hypertension.