Travellers on a Hidden River: Retracing Sheffield’s Discoveries in Pulmonary Hypertension

Pulmonary hypertension is high blood pressure in the blood vessels that carry blood through the lungs. It puts extra strain on the right side of the heart and, without treatment, can lead to heart failure.

Our understanding of this serious condition has changed dramatically over the past 70 years, and Sheffield has played an important part in that story.

In this episode of The Overend Knight Medical History Podcast, Professor Allan Pacey, Dr Will Parker and Dr Abdul Hameed look back at the people and discoveries that helped doctors understand pulmonary hypertension.

The story includes pathologist Donald Heath, whose research in Sheffield during the 1950s helped reveal what happens to the heart and lungs when someone develops pulmonary vascular disease. His work was part of a growing effort to understand a condition that doctors once had few ways to diagnose or treat.

The episode follows that research through to the Sheffield Pulmonary Vascular Disease Unit at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, where specialist teams now combine patient care with research into pulmonary hypertension, diagnosis and treatment.

Research has transformed what a pulmonary hypertension diagnosis can mean for patients, improving treatment, quality of life and survival. This podcast looks at the Sheffield researchers and clinicians who helped make that change possible, and at the questions they are still working to answer today.