Symptoms, Complications and Treatment of Pulmonary Artery Disease
Q: I’m a female. I’m 31 years old. I have a heart condition. I have a narrow pulmonary artery and a prolapsed valve. Is this something that I should be wearing an ID tag for?
-By Dawm
Reply:
It’s difficult to estimate the severity of your disease since we don’t know your symptoms.
Usually, pulmonary artery disease involving the valve are to be taken seriously. The patient may have any of the following symptoms:
- Shortness of breath especially on exertion.
- Tiredness all the time
- Chest pain
- Bluish tint on the skin
If any of the above symptoms are present, medications must be started.
Commonly Prescribed Medicines:
- Vasodilators (like epoprostenol)- These are prescribed when pulmonary hypertension is present. They dilate the blood vessels.
- Calcium channel blockers (amlodipine, diltiazem) relax the muscular walls of the blood vessels and widens them.
- A few patients require frequent oxygen therapy.
Patients with pulmonary artery disease need to be careful as certain complications may occur anytime.
Possible Complications:
- Bleeding into the lungs with blood in cough.
- Irregular heartbeats (arrhythmia) can arise. This is a condition where the heart may miss a beat, slow down for a while or suddenly beat very fast. This occurs because the right chamber of the heart dilates. The wall of this chamber transmits heart beats. On stretching, this conduction of the beat gets affected.
Wearing an ID card would be a good idea.
Take Care,
Buddy M.D.
