Platypnea

Platypnea is usually due to either hepatopulmonary syndrome or an anatomical cardiovascular defect increasing positional right-to-left shunting (bloodflow from the right to the left part of the circulatory system) such as a patent foramen ovale. These defects include rare syndromes in which the venous blood from the liver does not pass through the lungs sufficiently, or if venous blood from the portal circulation reaches the inferior vena cava without passing through the liver sufficiently (Abernethy malformation, type 1). ==Etymology and pronunciation==

The word platypnea uses combining forms of platy- + -pnea, from Greek platus (= flat) and pnoia (=breath). See pronunciation information at dyspnea. ==See also==