TY - JOUR T1 - The prognostic impact of follow-up assessments in patients with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 38 IS - Suppl 55 SP - p2389 AU - Nils Nickel AU - Marius Hoeper AU - Heiko Golpon AU - Knudsen Lars AU - Olsson Karen Y1 - 2011/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p2389.abstract N2 - Objective: Current guidelines for the treatment of patients with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH) recommend therapeutic decision making on hemodynamic, functional and biochemical variables. Most of these parameters have been evaluated at basline. The aim of the present study was to assess the prognostic impact of changes in these parameters after initiation of therapy.Method and results: A cohort of 109 patients with IPAH who had complete hemodynamic, functional and biochemical assessments at baseline and 3-12 months after initiation of therapy was followed in order to determine predictors of mortality at baseline and during the course of the disease. For survival analysis, patients were categorized in four groups according to a classification system proposed by the European Pulmonary Hypertension Guideline Group.During follow-up, changes in WHO-FC, CI, SvO2 and NT-proBNP were significantly associated with the outcome. When assigned to prognostic groups, improvements as well as deteriorations of these parameters after initiation of PAH-targeted therapy had a strong impact on survival. ER -