Pulmonary Services

Pulmonary Hypertension & Pulmonary Vascular Diseases Program

Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center now offers world-class care for patients with pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary vascular diseases through a comprehensive, multidisciplinary program. The team includes dedicated pulmonologists, cardiologists, interventional radiologists, and specialty nurses.

Services Offered

• Prompt diagnostic evaluation by a pulmonologist and follow up by a cardiologist, if needed.
• Diagnostic testing including right heart catheterization, acute vasoreactivity testing, stress echocardiography, and cardiopulmonary exercise testing.
• Full range of conventional and new therapies for pulmonary arterial hypertension including endothelin receptors antagonists, phosphodiestrase inhibitors, intravenous, and inhaled prostacyclin analogues.

Who May Benefit?

• High pulmonary artery pressure on echocardiogram or heart catheterization with suspected pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).
• Idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (iPAH).
• PAH associated with:
  • Rheumatological disorders, e.g. SLE, scleroderma
  • Adult congenital heart disease
  • Advanced liver disease and portal hypertension
  • Appetite suppressant use in past
  • Pulmonary thromboembolic disease
  • Sickle cell disease, HIV, sarcoidosis, pulmonary, veno-occlusive disease, and others.
• Dyspnea not fully explained by pulmonary function testing or chest imaging, in the absence of suspected cardiac or neuromuscular diseases.
• Complicated chronic thromboembolic disease.
• Other pulmonary vascular diseases, e.g. symptomatic mediastinal fibrosis etc.