Pulmonary hypertension and left heart disease: emerging concepts and treatment strategies.

At least two thirds of patients with chronic severe left heart disease have associated pulmonary hypertension, and mortality associated with biventricular failure is >two-fold higher compared with isolated left ventricular failure. This review considers and discusses emerging concepts and strategies from recent studies of specific treatments in populations with pulmonary hypertension complicating overt left ventricular dysfunction. While the results reported in the studies considered are encouraging, to date there are no large randomised studies of specific treatments in populations with pulmonary hypertension complicating overt left ventricular dysfunction.