Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension in UAE: the first reported seven year outcomes from a tertiary center in UAE

BackgroundThe aim of the study was to present the first United Arab Emirates (UAE) Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension registry of patients clinical characteristics, hemodynamic parameters, and treatment outcomes. MethodsThis was a retrospective study describing all adult patients who were diagnosed with Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension (CTEPH) between January 2015 and April 2022 in a tertiary referral center in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Ethics StatementIRB and Research Ethics Committee approval was obtained under REC number A-2017-030. Researchers had access to the anonymized electronic medical records with fully anonymized data for analysis of retrospective data collected from July 2015 till April 2022. IRB and REC waived the requirement for informed consent. ResultsA total of 39 consecutive patients were diagnosed with CTEPH during the seven years of the study. Two patients who had pulmonary artery balloon angioplasty (BPA) were not included in the analysis. Twelve out of the 37 patients (56%) had pulmonary thrombo-endarterectomy (PTE) and were designated as the surgical group, the rest were designated the medical group. The patients were followed for a median of 11 months [IQR: 6-22.5]. Most of the patients in the medical group were started on dual then subsequently escalated to triple combination therapy. Most of the patients in the surgical group stopped the vasodilator therapy. The 1-, 3- and 5-year medical group survival rates were 80%, 68% and 68%, respectively. None of the patients in the surgical group died. ConclusionThis is the first registry of CTEPH patients from a single tertiary referral center in UAE. Our cohort was younger than ones reported in the Western World but similar to the one reported in Saudi Arabia. The medical group mortality is comparable to other major registries. The recent introduction of PTE program in our center is likely to increase number of surgical patients.