Pulmonary vasodilators can lead to various complications in pulmonary "arterial" hypertension associated with congenital heart disease

Congenital heart disease-associated pulmonary arterial hypertension (CHD-PAH) is one of the major complications in patients with CHD. A timely closure of the left-to-right shunt will generally result in the normalization of the pulmonary hemodynamics, but a few patients have severe prognosis in their early childhood. We hypothesized that wide-ranging pathological mechanism in PAH could elucidate the clinical state of severe CHD-PAH. Using electronic medical records, we retrospectively analyzed six infants with severe CHD-PAH who had treatment-resistant PH. All patients were born with congenital malformation syndrome. After starting on a pulmonary vasodilator, five of the six patients developed complications including pulmonary edema and interstitial lung disease (ILD), and four patients had alveolar hemorrhage. After steroid therapy, the clinical condition improved in four patients, but two patients died. The autopsy findings in one of the deceased patients indicated the presence of recurrent alveolar hemorrhage, pulmonary venous hypertension, ILD, and PAH. Based on the clinical course of these CHD-PAH in patients and the literature, CHD-PAH can occur with pulmonary vascular obstructive disease (PVOD)/pulmonary capillary hemangiomatosis (PCH), ILD, and/or alveolar hemorrhage. The severity of CHD-PAH may depend on a genetic disorder, respiratory infection, and upper airway stenosis. Additionally, pulmonary vasodilators may be involved in the development of PVOD/PCH and ILD. When patients with CHD-PAH show unexpected deterioration, clinicians should consider complications associated with PVOD/PCH and/or pulmonary disease. In addition, the choice of upfront combination therapy for pediatric patients with CHD-PAH should be selected carefully.