Inflammation stiffens and thickens the artery , ramping up the pressure , creating an environment so hostile and diseased it warps cells ’ genetic expression at the molecular level . It doesn ’ t just affect the cardiopulmonary system . It seems to fundamentally rebuild the system . Often , the changes are irreversible ( 1 ).
Theoretically , you should be able to reverse the process , or at least stop it from progressing , by relaxing the pulmonary artery . Indeed , dozens of vasodilators have been tried , and some of them , in some situations , can slow the cycle down .
Just as often , though , they don ’ t . And when they don ’ t , there ’ s not much else .
THE VICIOUS CYCLE
In many ways , pulmonary hypertension , or PH , is still poorly understood . Still , few people in the world can claim to have done as much to understand it as pediatric critical care specialist Kurt Stenmark , MD . His work has been supported for 45 years by the longest continuously funded program project grant in the Division of Lung Diseases of the NIH . He helped found and has led the Division of Critical Care at Children ’ s Hospital Colorado since 1987 . He ’ s led the Cardiovascular Pulmonary Research Lab at the neighboring University of Colorado School of Medicine — the CVP for short — since 2005 , growing a team of more than 30 of the world ’ s foremost pulmonary hypertension researchers . He ’ s