A review of pulmonary arterial hypertension: Part 2: Current and expected treatments.

Medical therapy for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) focuses on pulmonary vascular remodelling and smooth muscle cell proliferation. This article covers the drugs which are approved or are in sight and the evidence-based treatment strategies that target the different pathobiological pathways, emanated from the World Health Organisation Symposium on Pulmonary Hypertension in Venice, June 2003. In addition we briefly look at the 'Venice consensus' on surgical treatment. In the past five and a half years more than 360 patients were seen for pulmonary hypertension in the Free University Medical Centre (VUmc). Present-day treatment, research studies and novel treatment strategies in the VUmc will be reviewed. Future treatments will be on the basis of insights into pathobiology, pathogenesis and genes in PAH and should focus on drug combinations, which theoretically target different or similar pathobiological pathways.