Study of connective tissue disease-associated pulmonary hypertension

Background Screening for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a leading cause of death in systemic sclerosis, facilitates earlier treatment. The aim of this work was to study connective tissue disease (CTD)-associated PAH guided by ‘DETECT’ algorithm. Patients and methods This study was a prospective cross-sectional study conducted on 30 patients with CTDs, including 16 cases with systemic sclerosis, nine cases with systemic lupus erythromatosis, and five cases with rheumatoid arthritis. Results According to right heart catheterization finding, estimated total sensitivity and specificity of step 1 and step 2 in diagnosis of PAH among all cases were 80 and 64%, respectively. Conclusion The novel, evidence-based DETECT algorithm for PAH detection in CTDs is a sensitive, noninvasive tool and addresses resource usage.