Pulmonary Hypertension News has recently reported on a small Chinese study exploring whether microRNAs — tiny molecules found in the blood that help regulate gene activity — could serve as non-invasive diagnostic markers for World Health Organisation (WHO) Group 2 pulmonary hypertension (pulmonary hypertension caused by left heart disease), potentially offering an alternative to the invasive right heart catheterisation currently used for diagnosis.
Analysing blood samples from 30 men, researchers identified five microRNAs strongly linked to pulmonary hypertension severity, four of which showed high diagnostic accuracy. The authors suggest these could potentially be used as blood-based biomarkers to help detect Group 2 pulmonary hypertension earlier and less invasively.
The study is preliminary — small, male-only, and not using the gold-standard diagnostic test — and larger, more diverse studies are needed to confirm the findings.
Read more at this link on Pulmonary Hypertension News