Echocardiographic evaluation of stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients

Context: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the second leading cause of mortality in India, cardiovascular disease (CVD) comorbidity further increases morbidity and mortality of COPD. Early detection of CVD by echocardiography in COPD helps to reduce mortality and morbidity. Objective: We aimed to assess the echocardiographic findings in stable COPD patients. Materials and Methods: Patients with stable COPD, confirmed by spirometry, were recruited from the two tertiary care centre of India between August 2017 and August 2019. After thorough clinical examinations, patients have undergone echocardiography for CVD evaluation. Results: A total of 110 COPD patients were recruited, 91 male and 19 female. On echocardiographic evaluation, pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) was seen in 45.5% of COPD with mild, moderate, severe 14.5%, 11% and 20% respectively. Cor-pulmonale was seen in 9.1%. Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) and left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) was seen in 11%, 39.1% and 13.6% of COPD respectively. CVD involvement was more common in very severe COPD (40.1%). Conclusion: In this study, 78.2% of COPD have at least one form of CVD as co-morbidity. A simple, cheaper, non-invasive, widely an available investigation like echocardiography is useful to detect CVD at an early stage.