Over the last two decades treatment options have drastically improved for patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). In the recent times, there is renewed interest in dry powder inhaler (DPI) based inhaled therapies in the treatment of PAH. PAH patients are well known to have respiratory and other muscle weakness either related to the disease itself or due to the underlying diseases like connective tissue disease (CTD). CTD PAH patients are at particular disadvantage as there is a concern if they have enough strength to press the buttons on the inhaler device, needed to pierce the drug capsule inside the device. Additionally, CTD PAH patients develop hand deformities making it difficult to use devices. To our knowledge, this is the first study to systematically examine the pinch force strength needed to pierce the capsule in DPI devices in patients with PAH. We enrolled 35 patients and our results showed that all PAH patients were able to generate enough pinch strength needed to pierce the capsule regardless of the etiology of PAH.

在过去的二十年里，肺动脉高压（PAH）患者的治疗选择已经大大改善。近年来，人们对基于干粉吸入器 (DPI) 的吸入疗法治疗 PAH 重新产生了兴趣。众所周知，PAH 患者患有呼吸肌无力和其他肌肉无力，这可能与疾病本身有关，也可能是由于结缔组织病 (CTD) 等潜在疾病所致。CTD PAH 患者处于特别不利的地位，因为人们担心他们是否有足够的力量来按下吸入器装置上的按钮，以刺穿装置内的药物胶囊。此外，CTD PAH 患者会出现手部畸形，导致难以使用设备。据我们所知，这是第一项系统地研究刺穿 PAH 患者 DPI 装置胶囊所需的捏力强度的研究。我们招募了 35 名患者，结果表明，无论 PAH 的病因是什么，所有 PAH 患者都能够产生刺穿胶囊所需的足够的捏力。