Abstract
Background
Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) can occur in families with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT), but it has not been well-characterized.
Purpose
This study sought to characterize the genetic defects, clinical and hemodynamic features, and outcomes of PAH patients in HHT families.
Methods
All HHT families with at least one case of PAH investigated in our center from January 2006 to December 2018 were enrolled in the study. We did whole-exome sequencing (WES) or whole-genome sequencing (WGS) to every proband and available family members. The clinical data, hemodynamic features and outcomes of PAH patients were reviewed.
Results
A total of 64 PAH patients in 57 families were enrolled. Only 7 (12.3%) families had more than one case of PAH. Activin-receptor-like kinase 1 (ALK-1) mutation and Endoglin (ENG) mutation were confirmed in 49 (86.0%) and 3 (5.3%) families and other 5 (8.8%) had no known mutation associated with HHT or PAH. The median age when PAH diagnosis was 22 [9–33] years and female was dominant (70.3%). Most patients (84.4%) had signs of HHT and anemia was recorded in 14 (21.9%) patients. Remarkably, these patients showed severely compromised hemodynamics with elevated mean pulmonary artery pressure (62 [51, 77] mm Hg) and pulmonary vascular resistance index (17.0 [11.2, 22.8] Wood units*m2). Also, impaired exercise capacity was recorded at diagnosis with decreased six-minute walking distance (410 [342–485] meters) and over half (54.7%) were in WHO functional class III or IV. The 1-, 3-, 5- and 10-year transplantation-free survival for the overall PAH patients was 95.0%, 75.9%, 67.1% and 36.4%, respectively. Anemia (HR: 4.24 [1.32–13.65], p=0.016) and CI <2.5 l/min/m2 (HR: 4.39 [1.20–16.09], p=0.026) were independent risk factors for mortality.
Conclusions
PAH in HHT families is a devastating condition characterized by a young age at PAH diagnosis, poor clinical status and outcomes mainly underlying ALK-1 mutation, which emphasizes the importance to pay attention to this group of patients.
Transplantation-free survival
Funding Acknowledgement
Type of funding source: Foundation. Main funding source(s): The Beijing Natural Science Foundation (7181009), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC0901502)
A novel BMPR2 mutation in a patient with heritable pulmonary arterial hypertension and suspected hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia