How a lung problem sinks the right heart · cor pulmonale · Week 12
Long-term lung disease turns the lungs into a high-pressure place to pump into. The right ventricle is built for low pressure only. Over time it strains, thickens, and fails. That is cor pulmonale. Pick a starting cause and walk the chain one step at a time.
The right heart under strain
Watch the right ventricle, the chamber on the left of the screen. It thickens as the pressure climbs, then it fails, and the body backs up.
Pick a cause, then press Advance.
1 · Pick the starting cause
2 · Follow the cascade
Two flavors of pulmonary HTN: in primary pulmonary HTN there is no known cause, and the vessels are abnormal from the start. Secondary pulmonary HTN is driven by a lung problem, such as COPD, PE, OSA, or pulmonary fibrosis. Either way the endpoint is the same: right heart failure.