Pulmonary arterial hypertension masquerading as severe refractory asthma

Abstract

Once the diagnosis of pulmonary arterial hypertension is established, wheezing and chronic cough are rarely described during the course of the disease. The present study reports on two nonsmoking patients with severe pulmonary arterial hypertension, confirmed by right-heart catheterisation, who developed chronic cough, wheezing and irreversible obstructive lung disease masquerading as adult-onset severe refractory asthma. In both cases, extrinsic proximal airway obstruction by dilated pulmonary arteries was demonstrated by fibreoptic bronchoscopy and computed tomography of the chest. The present observations add dilatation of the central pulmonary arteries with compression of the mainstem bronchi to the list of masqueraders of asthma in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension. Copyright©ERS Journals Ltd 2008.