Pulmonary Hypertension Secondary to COPD

Table 6

Summary of the effects of pulmonary vasodilators in the published studies of such drugs in COPD patients.

First author	Alp et al. [88]	Holverda et al. [89]	Rietema et al. [90]	Stolz et al. [95]	Valerio et al. [96]	Blanco et al. [91]	Rao et al. [94]
Year of publication	2006	2008	2008	2008	2009	2010	2011
Country	Germany	Netherlands	Netherlands	Switzerland	Italy	Spain	India
Drug	Sildenafil	Sildenafil	Sildenafil	Bosentan	Bosentan	Sildenafil	Sildenafil
Dose	50 mg BID	50 mg	50 mg TID	125 mg BID	125 mg BID	20 mg vs 40 mg	20 mg TID
Duration	3 months	Acute effects	3 months	3 months	18 months	Acute effects	3 months
Total N	5	18	15	20	20	20	17
N with PH	5	11	9	14	20	12	17
N with resting PH	5	5	5	14	20	12	17
PAP	↓	↓ r + e		No Δ	↓	↓ r + e	↓
CO	NA	No Δ r + e	No Δ r + e	No Δ	No Δ	↑ r + e
PVR	↓	No Δ r + e		No Δ	↓	↓ r + e
SpO2PaO2		↓ r + e	No Δ r + e	↓ r, No Δ e	No Δ	↓ r, No Δ e
6MWD (m) at baseline	351 ± 49		385 ± 135	339 ± 81	257 ± 150	396 ± 114	269 ± 140
6MWD (m) after treatment	↑ to 433 ± 52		↑ to 396 ± 116	↑ to 329 ± 94	↑ to 321 ± 122	NA	↑ by 191 ± 127

mg: milligrams, BID: twice a day, TID: three times a day, vs: versus, N: total number of patients who received the study drug, N with PH: number of patients with pulmonary hypertension, PH: pulmonary hypertension, PAP: pulmonary artery pressure, CO: cardiac output, PVR: pulmonary vascular resistance, SpO₂: oxygen saturation by pulse oximetry, PaO₂: arterial oxygen tension, 6MWD: six-minute walk distance, m: meters, NA: not available or not applicable, r + e: rest and exercise, Δ: change, r: rest, e: exercise.