Symptoms include chest pain, swollen feet and legs, being short of breath, fatigue and feeling light-headed or dizzy. Primary pulmonary hypertension is extremely rare, occurring in just two out of every one million people. Recently, the disease attracted national attention when more than one hundred people developed it after using the diet drug combination fen-phen and sued their doctors and the drug manufacturer. Medical conditions, which can trigger pulmonary hypertension, are emphysema and bronchitis. The ailment may also be caused by lupus and scleroderma, diseases where antibodies in the blood fight against the body's own tissues.
Pulmonary hypertension can be difficult to diagnose.
Jewett knows this is true. When she originally became ill in 1994, she wasn't sure what was wrong when she started having trouble breathing. After losing her job, Jewett found a pulmonary specialist. Although the doctor has many years of pulmonary experience, he did not recognize the symptoms and gave her inhalers and cough medicine. Four months later, a routine chest x-ray showed her enlarged heart and Jewett was referred to a cardiologist who performed an echocardiogram.