La nuova classificazione dell'ipertensione arteriosa polmonare di Dana Point

Since 1973, the date of the first classification of pulmonary hypertension, several changes regarding this classification were performed in Evian in 1998 e in Venice in 2003. The 4th World Symposium on Pulmonary Hypertension took place in Dana Point, California, in February 2008. On currently new available evidence, international experts in pulmonary hypertension have simplified the definition of pulmonary hypertension and modified the previous clinical classification, even if the general architecture has been maintened. Most of the modifications concern group 1: this subgroup includes patients with pulmonary hypertension with a family history or patients with idiopatic pulmonary hypertension with germline mutations; schistosomiasis and chronic haemolytic anemia appear as a separate entities in the subgroup of pulmonary hypertension associated with identified diseases; pulmonary veno-occlusive disease and pulmonary capillary hemangiomatosis are in a separate group, called group 1', distinct but very close to group 1. Minor modifications has been done to other groups of the classification.