[Screening and diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension]

SCREENING AND DIAGNOSIS OF PULMONARY HYPERTENSION. Diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension is often delayed due to the low specificity of clinical signs, dominated by exertional dyspnea. The European recommendations of the learned societies of pneumology and cardiology, published in 2022, have specified the diagnostic algorithm. The diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension is based on a 3-stage approach. The first stage, «suspicion», is mainly based on the symptoms and clinical signs presented by the patient. The second stage "detection" is based on screening paraclinical examinations such as cardiac ultrasound, which enable the diagnostic suspicion to be ruled out or reinforced. Finally, if the ultrasound probability of pulmonary hypertension is high, the third stage aims to confirm the diagnosis by means of right heart catheterization.