Prevalence of Hypertension Higher With Myeloproliferative Neoplasms Than in General Population

Nearly 10% of patients with chronic myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) developed pulmonary hypertension, according to results from a prospective study at the Hematology and Cellular Therapy Department of University Hospital of Marseille, France. These results were published in the European Journal of Internal Medicine.

Chronic MPNs can cause pulmonary hypertension. In this study, researchers screened 183 patients with newly diagnosed MPNs and evaluated them prospectively for pulmonary hypertension via transthoracic echocardiography.

A total of 512 consecutive patients with newly diagnosed MPNs were screened between May 2008 and May 2018. Of those 512 patients, 183 were included in this study.

In this cohort, 2 patients had post-essential thrombocythemia (ET) myelofibrosis (MF), 2 patients had chronic eosinophilic leukemia, 11 patients had primary myelofibrosis (PMF), 2 patients had post-polycythemia vera (PV) MF, 28 patients had chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), 51 patients had PV, and 87 patients had ET.

Researchers used transthoracic echocardiography to assess the prevalence of pulmonary hypertension. Of the 16 cases of suspected pulmonary hypertension, 2 patients had PMF, 3 patients had CML, 4 patients had PV, and 7 patients had EV. Of the 7 patients with EV, 2 were excluded because of global cardiac failure. This resulted in 14 patients (7.7%) who developed pulmonary hypertension. Though this prevalence was lower than expected, it is higher than the prevalence of pulmonary hypertension in the general population.

“Because early detection of PH is of pivotal importance for treatment success, we recommend systematic screening for PH [pulmonary hypertension] in MPN patients even when they are asymptomatic,” concluded the researchers.

Reference

Venton G, Turcanu M, Colle J, et al. Pulmonary hypertension in patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms: A large cohort of 183 patients [published online August 14, 2019]. Eur J Intern Med. doi:10.1016/j.ejim.2019.08.004