Place of cardiovascular comorbidities in hospitalized patients for exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Background The chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic systemic disease. Recently, emphasis has been placed on the importance of the associated comorbidities, especially cardiovascular, which have a considerable impact on the quality of life and the prognosis of patients. Purpose In this study, we attempted to assess the association between COPD and different comorbidities and to evaluate a possible dependence with the profile of a frequent exacerbator. Methods It is a randomized, double-blind, balanced, prospective study including 43 out-patient, aged from 50 to 92 years, affected with COPD followed-up in the department of pneumology. Each patient was subjected for 12-lead ECG, 24-Hour Holter for arrhythmia detection and two-dimensional echocardiography in the department of cardiology. We compared a group of patients with frequent exacerbations of COPD G1 (n = 23) to a group of patients G2 with infrequent exacerbations of COPD (n = 20). Results The mean of age was 71 years (ranging from 47 years to 92 years) in G1 versus 65 years in G2 (P = 0.04). Among comorbidities, cardiovascular pathologies were the most frequently associated with COPD observed in 15 patients (35%) followed by diabetes in 7 patients (16%) and by anemia in 5 patients (11%). We noted that different cardiovascular comorbidities were significantly more common in the group of patients with frequent exacerbations than the patients with infrequent exacerbations of COPD (P = 0.04). Conclusion In our study, there is a close relationship between exacerbation of COPD and association with different cardiovascular comorbidities. These comorbidities influence both the symptoms and the life expectancy, hence the importance of a global management of comorbidities by a multidisciplinary team.