[No grounds for vasodilatory treatment in pulmonary hypertension]

Large scale review of the literature on vasodilatory treatment of secondary pulmonary hypertension reveals an abundance of non-controlled and non-blinded studies. There is only a handful of randomized, placebo-controlled trials. These few studies cannot support the findings from non-controlled studies showing beneficial haemodynamic effects. Only two controlled studies showed clinically relevant parameters such as working capacity, mortality and morbidity, and vasodilators do not seem to possess beneficial influence on these parameters. It is concluded, that until now no publication has been able to convincingly demonstrate any long-term clinically beneficial effects of vasodilators in patients with secondary pulmonary hypertension.