Pulmonary hypertension in Chuvash polycythemia

The objective of our study was to compare clinical manifestations and Doppler echocardiography for patients with Chuvash polycythemia. Data was collected on 30 patients: 15 with Chuvash polycythemia and 12 control patients. We hypothesized that the upregulation of the hypoxic response in Chuvash polycythemia would be associated with a risk for the development of pulmonary hypertension. We found that, although the patients with Chuvash polycythemia had lower systemic blood pressures than controls, their pulmonary artery pressures were significantly higher than controls. We conclude that pulmonary hypertension may be a previously unrecognized complication of Chuvash polycythemia.