Importance of pulmonary artery to ascending aorta ratio in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Abstract

Recent articles revealed that an increased main pulmonary artery to ascending aorta ratio (PA/A) in thorax computed tomography (CT) correlated with pulmonary hypertension, and might be linked to a high probability of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations. In this study, our aim was to evaluate the clinical importance of PA/A in patients with exacerbations of COPD and investigate its relationship with the number of exacerbations in 1 year or short/long-term mortality after hospital discharge. One hundred fifty-six patients hospitalized for COPD exacerbations who fulfilled our inclusion criteria were enrolled in the study. We recorded the number of exacerbations in 1 year from hospital records, checked mortality status, and calculated the PA/A ratio from thorax CT images. PA/A ratio positively correlated with the number of hospitalizations for COPD exacerbations and the total number of exacerbations (hospitalized or not) in 1 year, and baseline PaCO2 level during hospitalization (r = 0.376, P < 0.001, r = 0.230, P = 0.004, and r = 0.328, P < 0.001, respectively). There was no relationship between mortality and PA/A. Our study showed that PA/A was related with the number of hospitalizations and the total number of exacerbations due to COPD in 1 year. However, there was no relationship between PA/A and mortality.