Right Ventricular Response to Pulmonary Arterial Stiffening in a Canine Model of Acute Embolization

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a devastating disease exhibiting fast progression [1] and poor prognosis [2]. PAH originates from an increased resistance to blood flow in the distal pulmonary vasculature and in the later stages of the disease leads to right ventricular (RV) functional impairment and subsequent heart failure, which in most cases is the direct cause of demise. In PAH, RV failure appears to be correlated to PA stiffening, which is a better predictor of mortality than the direct increases in mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP) and pulmonary vasculature resistance (PVR) [3,4].