A new study has found that doctors may be able to use a simple blood test to diagnose patients with primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH), a disease which causes high blood pressure in the lung arteries. Doctors are hopeful that the test may eliminate the need for more invasive procedures that were previously used to diagnose PPH and allow them to begin treating the disease sooner.

The symptoms of PPH, such as shortness of breath, can be masked by those of other lung diseases, making the condition difficult to diagnose. In many cases, doctors are only able to detect PPH until the disease has become so advanced that patients are in danger of heart failure.

According to the study in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, PPH causes the arteries in the lungs to narrow, forcing the heart to work harder to pump blood and triggering the release of a hormone called brain natriuretic peptide (BNP).

In the new study, patients with higher levels of BNP were three times more likely to die from cardiopulmonary diseases than patients with normal levels of the hormone. Experts believe that blood tests to look for BNP may enable them to diagnose PPH sooner, allowing patients to get treated before the disease has become more advanced.