Investigation of the Relationship Between the Measured Alpha Angle in Capnography and Readmission Within Thirty Days in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients Who Presented to the Emergency Department

Background

Individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) constitute a significant portion of patients who present to the emergency department with dyspnea. However, there is no ideal method for predicting mortality or making hospitalization decisions in the emergency department (ED). In this regard, objective findings are needed for these patients. Since there are no objective findings regarding the hospitalization decision, there may be an increase in the re-admission rate of patients who needed hospitalization but were decided to be discharged. Side-stream end-tidal carbon dioxide (EtCO₂) measurements offer a non-invasive, easy-to-interpret, quickly accessible, and reproducible method that can be applied at the bedside.

Objectives

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the alpha angle values obtained by capnography and readmission rates within 30 days for patients experiencing COPD exacerbations who presented to the ED with dyspnea and were discharged after treatment.

Methods

In this study, we studied with 130 participants presented to the emergency department of a tertiary care university hospital with dyspnea, who are >18 y. Forty patients were excluded after evaluation for eligibility for the study. Thus, the data of 90 patients included were analyzed. We obtained alpha angle and EtCO₂ values for all patients at the time of admission and also after treatment. The primary outcome measure of the study was the relationship between the patients’ readmission situations within 30 days of the alpha angle measurements. The secondary outcome measure was the association between patients’ EtCO₂ values ​​and readmission within 30 days.

Results

It was observed that both the pretreatment alpha angle values and the posttreatment alpha angle variables were statistically significant in predicting the readmission of the patients within 30 days (p = 0.001, p = 0.003)

Conclusion

The results of this study show that alpha angle values measured for patients with COPD who present to the ED with the complaint of dyspnea may be used to predict readmission.