Diagnosing Pulmonary Hypertension

To assist in diagnosing PH, a history of all prior and medical conditions will be taken. Additionally, the doctor will ask what medicines you is taking, including over-the-counter and homeopathic medicines.) Blood tests and a physical exam are conducted and diagnosis usually begins with ruling out the presence of other diseases having similar symptoms to PH.

An echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) is required if there is a suggestion of PH, followed by breathing tests, walking tests, CT scans and a right heart catheter. These tests are all different ways of looking at how well your heart and lungs are working.

If the tests show indicate a diagnosis of PAH, then additional tests may be done in order to identify the cause. If no cause can be found, the diagnosis is idiopathic PAH, in other words, the cause is not known. Doctors have devised a classification system to help understand to what extent the PAH symptoms are affecting activities of daily living. The classification is based on severity of symptoms and is referred to as a PAH “functional class.” Knowing a patient’s functional class—class I – class IV, where class I is very early stage PAH and a functional class of IV is very severe PAH, helps the doctor determine which type of treatment should be given.