A study finds that surgery to remove blood clots from the arteries improves pulmonary hypertension symptoms but not underlying sleep disorders in patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, reports Pulmonary Hypertension News.
The arterial blockage caused by the blood clots may induce the remodeling of pulmonary vasculature, causing patients to stop breathing, partially or completely, several times during sleep. Many CTEPH patients experience these abnormal breathing patterns, known as sleep-disordered breathing (SDB).
