Plasma big-endothelin in pre- versus postcapillary pulmonary hypertension

Objective: Big-ET-1 seems to correlate with severity and prognosis in patients with precapillary pulmonary arterial hypertension as in patients with congestive left heart failure (CHF). While endothelin-receptor-antagonists (ERAs) became a milestone in medical therapy of PAH, ERAs failed to improve long-term clinical outcome in CHF patients. The objective of this case series is to compare plasma big-ET-1 levels in patients with precapillary pulmonary hypertension versus patients with CHF with and without postcapillary pulmonary hypertension and to correlate big-ET-1 plasma levels to hemodynamic parameters of rig…