PULMONARY HYPERTENSION

Pre-capillary pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a condition defined by persistent elevation in mean pulmonary artery pressure above 25 mmHg leading to subsequent right heart failure. Dramatic improvement has been made during the past decades in the medical management postponing the need for double lung transplantation. However, transplantation remains the last solution in the face of endstage disease. Donor scarcity has prolonged the waiting time and some patients develop right heart failure while waiting for transplantation. ECMO (ExtraCorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) is used as short-term right heart and lung support for bridging patients to transplantation. Our goal is to improve results of the Pulmonary Hypertension bridging program.

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Over the last decades, advances in organ replacement technology have allowed for the replacement of multiple organs. Although ventricular assist devices and total artificial hearts are now available for end-stage heart failure, there is no available device to replace durably the lung. It is partially due to the tight heart-lung connexion. The cardio-pulmonary unit includes the lung as an oxygenator and the Right Ventricule as a pump. The main objective of this project is to develop a biological artificial device to replace this Lung-Right Ventricle assembly. 

 

It is widely assumed that PH represents an excellent model for studying the cardiopulmonary unit as patients develop profound cardiopulmonary dysfunction over the course of the illness.  Such changes can also occur in patients with other etiologies of end-stage lung disease.  Consequently, studying PH will allow us to better understand the cardiopulmonary unit and develop therapies that can benefit all those with end-stage lung disease with lung function replacement need.