Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. This study aimed to determine the ratio distribution and etiological characteristics of PH in Somalia-Turkey Training and Research Hospital.
Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics and data on morbidity were retrieved from clinical records. The distribution characteristics of the disease could be related to the region-specific differences of the causative diseases. Further studies are needed to better capture the epidemiology of PH in Somalia. Pulmonary hypertension PH is a heterogeneous group of diseases that leads to impaired health-related quality of life and early mortality, if untreated.
In case of clinical suspicion, transthoracic echocardiography TTE is helpful in the diagnosis, while right heart catheterization is the gold standard diagnostic method. In PH, which is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality, effective and robust solutions can be attained by adopting the same terminology with a multidisciplinary approach.
The most recent update in the clinical classification of pulmonary hypertension was made in 6 th world symposium on PH. The basic principle of clinical classification is to categorize diseases with similar physiopathological mechanisms, clinical findings, hemodynamic features, and treatments under a common topic. Because of the variability of etiological factors, the prevalence of PH in African countries is higher than in developed countries [ 4 , 5 ].
Studies on mortality in a small number of countries on the continent have shown that PH is the leading cause of death [ 6 , 7 ]. Somalia, where our study was conducted, has a special place among African countries; in this country, there is no social security system and social state policy due to the ongoing civil war [ 8 ].
