Pathology of the pulmonary vasculature. Correlation with clinical and haemodynamic data.

In dealing with pulmonary vascular disease, essential for the clinician are its correlation with pulmonary arterial pressure and resistance, its potential reversibility and its prognosis for the patient. These relations, however, are far from simple. Medial hypertrophy as well as intimal fibrosis have a fairly good correlation with pressure and resistance in plexogenic arteriopathy but not in pulmonary venous hypertension. Reversibility of intimal fibrosis, and thereby its prognosis for the patient, depends not only on its severity but particularly on its type. The concentric-laminar form of intimal fibrosis for instance has an ominous prognosis when severe in contrast to other types. Not only the various forms of vascular changes and their severity but also the type of pulmonary hypertensive disease have to be taken into account for an accurate evaluation of a lung biopsy.