Remark on Hepatopulmonary Syndrome

[Guest guest]

Bob, (and anyone else)

I found this in the article I previously posted. I remember you

posting a long while back about how difficult it was for the doctors

to diagnose you with this.

Hepatopulmonary syndrome is a poorly-understood phenomenon in which

the arteries dilate in the lungs as the liver fails, causing V/Q

mismatching. There is no current remedy. See Gastroent 113: 606, 1997;

Surg. Clin. N.A. 79: 23, 1999; Mayo Clin. Proc. 79: 42, 2004; Lancet

363: 1461, 2004 ( " notoriously underdiagnosed " ).

* Future clinicians: In contrast to congestive heart failure,

dyspnea in hepatopulmonary syndrome improves when lying flat

( " platypnea " ), since the V/Q mismatching is worst in the lung bases.

Any idea why?

MaC