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Pulmonary
Hypertension Center
Director, Norbert Voelkel, M.D., Professor of Medicine Clinical Director, David Badesch, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine The Pulmonary Hypertension Center, now in its fifth year, has been formed as an interdepartmental working group of faculty and fellows interested in all aspects of pulmonary vascular diseases. The first mission of this center is to provide medical care for patients with all forms of severe pulmonary hypertension, to provide a definitive diagnosis of the disorder, and to provide definitive therapy including continuous intravenous prostacyclin infusion and lung transplantation. Since the formation of this multi-disciplinary center, about 500 patients have been referred for evaluation of the disease to the University of Colorado Pulmonary Hypertension Center, many from out of state. The Center is now established as a regional referral center for all forms of severe vascular disease. Patients are being referred from the entire Rocky Mountain region, from Montana to the Mexican border. Dr. David Badesch is the Clinical Director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Center, with Kris Wynne, R.N., the Nurse Coordinator. The Center's approach to pulmonary vascular disorders is unique due to the close interaction between pulmonologists, cardiologists, and radiologists. Dr. Bertron Groves provides the heart catheter information, Dr. Robert Quaife provides the noninvasive assessment of the pulmonary artery pressure and the performance of the right ventricle. Together with Dr. David Lynch of the Department of Radiology, we also investigate the performance of the right ventricle via MRI. Dr. Rubin Tuder and Dr. Carlyne Cool of the Department of Pathology are investigative pathologists who use specialized immunohistological techniques as well as in situ hybridization to characterize the cellular components and the growth factor products of the vascular cells which make up the characteristic pulmonary hypertensive vascular lesions. Dr. Rubin Tuder is investigating the hypothesis that the TAT protein of HIV may be responsible for the vascular remodeling in patients with Primary Pulmonary Hypertension (PPH) and HIV disease. A further important link has been established with several members of the Division of Rheumatology to provide care for patients with collagen vascular disorders and pulmonary hypertension, in particular, patients with the CREST variant of scleroderma. At the present time, 35 patients with PPH are being treated with continuous infusion of prostacyclin, and protocols for the treatment of patients with secondary forms of pulmonary hypertension have been established. |
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