Cell-free hemoglobin generated by the lungs may be a therapeutic target for treating pulmonary arterial hypertension, Vanderbilt researchers found.

A Vanderbilt study found that using a wearable activity tracker to count and increase the number and intensity of steps taken daily can reduce the risk of several common, chronic diseases.

Doctors diagnosing pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) — elevated pulmonary pressure due to an issue in the small vessels of the lung — rely on a hemodynamic threshold set in the early 1970s to determine whether patients would be candidates for pulmonary vasodilator therapy.

Pulmonary hypertension is a common complication of chronic diseases that occurs when there is increased blood pressure in the arteries carrying blood from the right side of the heart to the lungs.

Vanderbilt investigators have studied the relationship between race, cardiometabolic traits and pulmonary hypertension.

Two vastly different causes of heart failure, both of which can devastate a patient’s life, are being studied at Vanderbilt University Medical Center thanks, in part, to the generosity of a grateful patient whose own damaged heart was repaired at Vanderbilt more than five years ago.