Sean P. Gaine • Robert Naeije
Andrew John Peacock
Editors

2014

The right heart has, in the past, been neglected by both pulmonary physicians and cardiologists. Pulmonary physicians saw it as part of the heart and therefore not of interest to them, whereas cardiologists viewed it as merely a conduit of blood to the lungs and therefore not of great interest to them either. It is now realised that the right heart is a fundamental integral component of the cardiopulmonary system and that its function can be deranged when there are abnormalities of the heart itself – whether left or right – and when there is an abnormality of the pulmonary circulation.