What is PH?

What is pulmonary hypertension (PH)?

Pulmonary hypertension is high blood pressure in the lungs. It’s different than the blood pressure that your doctor measures with a cuff. When a person has PH, the arteries in the lungs become damaged, narrow or stiff, putting pressure on the right side of the heart as it works extra hard to push blood through. If left untreated, PH can lead to right heart failure and death.

What are the symptoms of PH?

People with PH can experience symptoms such as shortness of breath, dizziness and fatigue. Because these symptoms can mirror common, less-threatening illnesses, patients often go years without being diagnosed, or are misdiagnosed as having other illnesses such as asthma or COPD. With early and accurate diagnosis, proper treatment can extend and improve PH patients’ quality of life. People who think they might have PH should seek diagnosis and treatment from a PH specialist. Other symptoms include chest pain, fainting, swelling of the arms, legs, ankles or abdomen, dry cough and Raynaud’s phenomenon.

Who can develop pulmonary hypertension?

There are risk factors that can make some people more likely to develop pulmonary hypertension (PH), but the condition can affect anyone. PH occurs in both children and adults, in men and women, and in people of all races and ethnic backgrounds. It may occur on its own or be associated with other medical conditions such as connective tissue diseases (including scleroderma and lupus), heart disease, HIV infection and chronic lung diseases such as COPD.

Although PH is usually a long-term condition without a general cure, one specific form — chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH), caused by old blood clots in the lungs — can sometimes be treated with a specialised operation called pulmonary endarterectomy. In suitable patients, this surgery can greatly improve symptoms and lung blood pressure, and in some cases may lead to near-normalisation of the condition. For people with very advanced disease or when other treatments are not possible or effective, lung transplantation may also be considered.

Learn more at https://www.phaeurope.org/about-ph/.

Reviewed and edited by Hall Skaara (patient expert)
Last update: 03/26/2026