Air pollution in pulmonary arterial hypertension: A United Kingdom cohort study

What is it about?

This study assessed the association between air pollution and idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension, which is a rare but important cardiopulmonary disease. Exposure to indirect measures of traffic-related air pollution was adversely associated with disease severity at baseline, whereas exposure to fine particles (smaller than 2.5μm in diameter) was associated with poor long-term prognosis.

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Why is it important?

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that aimed at investigating the association between air pollution exposure and hemodynamic severity and outcomes in pulmonary arterial hypertension. However, our findings require validation and replication in a larger cohort to increase confidence in the reliability of these estimates. The present study thus encourages further investigations on air pollution exposure as a potentially removable risk factor influencing PAH incidence, severity and outcomes.