The PAH Initiative Learning Library

[Video title: PAH Basics, Part 1 in the PAH Initiative Video Series] Hi, I’m Dr Lana Melendres-Groves, a pulmonary arterial hypertension specialist and director of the pulmonary hypertension program at the University of New Mexico. I have been treating pulmonary diseases for over 12 years with a specialization in PAH for over 9 years. My clinic has treated over 5,000 patients and I currently oversee 250 PAH patients on PAH-specific medicines. In this video, we’ll cover the basics of pulmonary arterial hypertension, also known as PAH. Understanding what PAH is can be confusing because even healthcare providers may tell you different things about it. Some may say your heart doesn’t work as well as it needs to. It’s really about the blood vessels. The real problem is in the lungs or it’s just hypertension. This is why it’s so important to find an experienced PAH specialist to help you. A PAH specialist is a cardiologist or pulmonologist who has had specific training in PAH and understands how challenging this disease really is.

The heart, lungs, and blood vessels all work together as a cardiovascular team and PAH affects each of these vital organs. So let’s start with the heart. You may already know that the heart has 4 chambers. Two chambers are called atria and receive blood from the other parts of the body and the other 2 chambers are called ventricles and pump blood out of the heart. The right atrium receives blue, oxygen-poor blood from the body and the right ventricle pumps that oxygen-poor blood to the lungs where it can pick up oxygen. The left atrium receives red, oxygen-rich blood from the lungs and then the left ventricle pumps the oxygen-rich blood to the rest of the body. Although cardiac diseases, including heart attacks, are more common in the left ventricle, it’s actually the right ventricle that is affected in people who have PAH.

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