PRIMARY pulmonary hypertension is an unusual disease of unknown etiology. An accurate diagnosis of this condition is now possible from the data obtained by catheterization of the right side of the heart. Wood found the characteristic unexplained pathologic changes in the pulmonary arterioles of only 17 of 10,000 patients examined postmortem.1 Although a familial incidence has already been emphasized by others,2-12 the purpose of this report is to call attention to the disease and to describe the autopsy findings in female twins.
Report of Cases
Case 1.
—A 29-year-old white woman (403674) had been in good health until October 1964, when four months following her fourth uncomplicated pregnancy and delivery, she developed exertional dyspnea, slight dependent edema, and visual scotomata with activity. In February 1965, she was admitted to Hamilton Air Force Base Hospital and was soon transferred to Lettermen General Hospital, San Francisco. Cardiac catheterization studies were