Most people with pulmonary hypertension take their medication in the form of tablets. Some use a nebuliser, to ‘inhale’ the therapy into their lungs, and some need their medication to be delivered directly into their bodies 24 hours a day. This is known as intravenous or IV therapy, and it involves patients wearing a small pump that delivers the therapy directly into their veins via a line.
The medications delivered in this way are called prostanoids, and they include iloprost and epoprostenol. Although these drugs are very effective, patients need comprehensive training to ensure they can manage their pump and line, safely and effectively at home.
Around one in 20 people with PH are on IV medication, but this number will grow as the population grows. Therefore, it’s crucial that specialist centres ensure these patients get the best outcomes from this treatment, and funding is being sought by the Sheffield Pulmonary Vascular Disease Unit to enable research to be carried out in this area.
To support the funding bid, in October 2023 we conducted an online survey to find out whether patients would value the research.
100% of those surveyed said they think this type of study is important, and 97% said they would be interested in the results.
We’re grateful to everyone who completed the short survey.
