Cardiovascular Disease and its Risk Factors: Frequency in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

Abstract

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the respiratory conditions which is indicated by persistent airflow obstruction. It is linked with various different comorbidities. Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is reported to be the most recurring in patients with COPD. Its impact in context of patient's exercise capacity, health status and manifestation of symptoms is poorly understood. The objective of my study is to ascertain the frequency of ischemic heart disease in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and to evaluate current magnitude of the problem in our local population. It a cross sectional study conducted in Department of Pulmonology, Nishtar Hospital Multan. Patients with COPD (as defined in Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) criteria 2021) with duration of more than 3 months were taken in the study. Of these 212 study cases, 127 (59.9 %) were male patients while 85 (40.1 %) were female patients. Mean age of our study cases was 56.75 ± 6.78 years. Diabetes was present in 57 (26.9 %), Dyslipidemia in 43 (20.3%), hypertension in 98 (46.2%) our patients and 29 (13.7 %) were obese. Smoking was noted in 100 (47.2 %). Ischemic Heart disease was present in 57 (26.9%) of our study cases. High frequency of ischemic heart disease was noted in patients with chronic pulmonary obstructive disease in our study. Ischemic Heart Disease was significantly linked with male gender, increasing age, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and family history for IHD and dyslipidemia.