Co-Relation of Echocardiographic Findings with Severity of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Abstract

Background : Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is the fourth leading cause of mortality worldwide. It is
defined as a disease formal categorized by airflow limitation that is not fully reversible. Patients with chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Electrocardiography
(ECG) and echocardiography (ECHO) give valuable information about cardiac disease and prognosis in COPD
patients.
Methods : A 50 patients of COPD fulfilling the inclusion criteria were selected. They were staged by pulmonary
function test (PFT) and evaluated by electrocardiography and echocardiography. All the patients were interviewed
with proper interview sheet, which was designed especially for this study. Data was analyzed using the student ttest,
percentages, mean values in SPSS Software 22.0 version.
Results : Mean age was 52.54±9.55 years, with male preponderance, male to female ratio 5.25:1. Mean duration
of disease was 6.36 ±4.14 years. The common symptom was breathlessness (100%). Most common ECG and
ECHO finding was right axis deviation (52%) and pulmonary artery hypertension (54%) respectively. Right axis
deviation and Poor 'r' wave progression were significantly correlated with disease severity by ECG findings while
R.A. dilatation, R.V. dilatation and Pulmonary hypertension were significantly correlated with disease severity by
ECHO findings (p<0.05).
Conclusions : COPD is more common in males and in the 5th and 6th decade. Most of the patients have
advanced disease at presentation. The incidence of abnormalities of ECG and echocardiography increases with
severity of COPD. ECG and echocardiography are better tools than clinical methods in detecting right ventricular
dysfunction (RVD) in COPD. So COPD patients should be screened for RVD by echocardiography.