Correlation between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and severity of coronary artery disease

Abstract

Objective We retrospectively analyzed the results of coronary angiography in patients with and without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and explored the relationship between the COPD and the severity of coronary atherosclerosis. Methods Data of patients undergoing coronary angiography and lung function testing in our hospital from July 2007 to October 2013 were collected.According to the lung function testing, the patients were divided into COPD and non-COPD.Number of affected coronary arteries, total number of lesions and Gensini′s score were compared between two groups. Results Eighty-five patients were included and divided into two groups: COPD (n=31) and non-COPD (n=54). Patients with COPD had a higher proportion of more than two affected coronary arteries (45.2% vs 20.4%, P=0.016), more location of coronary artery lesions [2(0, 3) vs 1(0, 2), P=0.044], and higher Gensini′s score [17(0, 38) vs 5(0, 12), P=0.025] than patients without COPD.By multivariable analysis, after adjustment for gender, age, body mass index, tobacco exposure and other traditional cardiovascular risk factors, COPD was positively related to the proportion of more than two affected coronary arteries (OR=3.17, P=0.044). Fifty-six patients were diagnosed coronary artery disease (CAD), in which 23 patients with COPD and 33 without COPD, in the CAD subgroup, patients with COPD had a higher proportion of more than two affected coronary arteries (60.9% vs 33.3%, P=0.041) and higher Gensini′s score [24(7, 52) vs 10(5, 25), P=0.019] than patients without COPD, multivariable analysis showed that COPD is independently related to the proportion of more than two affected coronary arteries (OR=4.25, P=0.029) and Gensini′s score (β=110.21, P=0.003). Conclusions COPD is independently associated with the severity and extent of CAD, and COPD may be one of the risk factors of diffuse lesion of coronary artery. Key words: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Coronary artery disease; Lung function testing; Coronary angiography