La enfermedad pulmonar obstructiva crónica y las estaciones del año

Abstract

To study the existence of differences among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) hospitalized for exacerbation during different seasons of the year. transversal study. all patients admitted to the short-stay medical ward for exacerbation of COPD over a period of one year. demographic variables, disease history, signs and symptoms, baseline walking test, baseline function tests, baseline blood gases, length of stay and death while hospitalized. patient variables were described and the characteristics of autumn/winter admissions were compared to those of spring/summer admissions. Two hundred thirty-two patients with a mean age of 70.9 +/- 9.4 years (87.9% male). Eighty-four (36.2%) were admitted in winter, 65 (28%) in spring, 30 (12.9%) in summer and 53 (22.8%) in autumn. Twenty-one percent were being treated with corticoids, 27% were using domiciliary oxygen therapy and 36% had cor pulmonale. Baseline lung function test results were as follows: FEV1 44%, FEV1/FVC 48%, pO2 65.9 mmHg and pCO2 43.5 mmHg. Mean length of stay was 4.9 +/- 6 days; 9 patients (3.9%) died. Only PCO2 upon admission showed seasonal autumn-winter versus spring-summer differences (44.3 versus 49.5, p = 0.0008). Statistically significant differences were not observed for other variables. Clear seasonal variation can be observed in the number of patients requiring admission due to COPD exacerbation, but we found no relevant seasonally-related differences in disease characteristics.