Pulmonary hypertension in the down syndrome population

Down syndrome (DS) is a common genetic disorder with protean manifestations. Children with DS are at risk for multiple medical issues that are well described; however, a potentially underappreciated condition that appears to have a high prevalence in this patient population is pulmonary hypertension (PH). The increased prevalence of PH in this population may have serious short and long-term consequences. The causes of PH in the DS population are not precisely known, but may be due to multiple other associated medical conditions that these children have concurrently, or due to shared biological features. We review the literature that describes the possible etiologies of PH in DS children with the hope that further research is performed to better define this complicated population.