Pentoxifylline therapy: a new adjunct in the treatment of pulmonary hypertension?

Patients with markedly elevated pulmonary vascular resistance, whether caused by primary pulmonary hypertension or by congenital heart disease, have a grave prognosis, regardless of the type of therapy they undergo. This brief report presents our experience in treating 6 patients (4 women and 2 men) having pulmonary vascular obstructive disease, by administrating pentoxifylline (Trental), a drug that has been used in patients with chronic occlusive systemic arterial disease. Our patients underwent treadmill testing before the study and again 1 to 3 months after initiation of the study. Duration of exercise was short in all patients; however, it increased significantly while patients were taking pentoxifylline. These preliminary results are encouraging; however, we were unable to confirm other physiologic improvement with noninvasive study, and placebo effect was not ruled out. Therefore, we believe that use of pentoxifylline in patients with pulmonary vascular obstructive disease warrants further investigation by means of detailed direct hemodynamic measurement.