Ischemic heart disease among subjects with and without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease – ECG-findings in a population-based cohort study

• Published in: BMC pulmonary medicine Vol. 15; no. 1; p. 156
• Main Authors: Nilsson, Ulf, Johansson, Bengt, Eriksson, Berne, Blomberg, Anders, Lundbäck, Bo, Lindberg, Anne
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BioMed Central 04.12.2015; BioMed Central Ltd
• Subjects: Aged; Analysis; Cardiology; Case-Control Studies; Cohort Studies; Comorbidity; Coronary disease; Coronary heart disease; Critical Care Medicine; Electrocardiogram; Electrocardiography; Epidemiology; Epidemiology and public health; Female; Health aspects; Humans; Immunologi inom det medicinska området; Immunology in the Medical Area; Intensive; Internal Medicine; kardiologi; Lung diseases, Obstructive; Lungmedicin och allergi; Male; Medical research; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Medicine, Experimental; Middle Aged; Mortality; Myocardial ischemia; Myocardial Ischemia - diagnostic imaging; Myocardial Ischemia - epidemiology; Overweight - epidemiology; Pneumology/Respiratory System; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - epidemiology; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - physiopathology; Pulmonology; Research Article; Respiratory diseases; Respiratory Medicine and Allergy; Smoking - epidemiology; Spirometry; Sweden - epidemiology; Thinness - epidemiology; Ultrasonography; Comorbidity; Epidemiology; Coronary disease; Respiratory diseases
• ISSN: 1471-2466; 1471-2466
• DOI: 10.1186/s12890-015-0149-1

Background Cardiovascular comorbidity in COPD is common and contributes to increased mortality. A few population-based studies indicate that ischemic electrocardiogram (ECG)-changes are more prevalent in COPD, while others do not. The aim of the present study was to estimate the presence of ischemic heart disease (IHD) in a population-based COPD-cohort in comparison with subjects without COPD. Methods All subjects with obstructive lung function (COPD, n  = 993) were identified together with age- and sex-matched controls (non-COPD, n  = 993) from population-based cohorts examined in 2002–04. In 2005, data from structured interview, spirometry and ECG were collected from 1625 subjects. COPD was classified into GOLD 1–4 after post-bronchodilator spirometry. Ischemic ECG-changes, based on Minnesota-coding, were classified according to the Whitehall criteria into probable and possible IHD. Results Self-reported IHD was equally common in COPD and non-COPD, and so were probable and possible ischemic ECG-changes according to Whitehall. After excluding subjects with restrictive spirometric pattern from the non-COPD-group, similar comparison with regard to presence of IHD performed between those with COPD and those with normal lung-function did neither show any differences. There was a significant association between self-reported IHD ( p  = 0.007) as well as probable ischemic ECG-changes ( p  = 0.042), and increasing GOLD stage. In COPD there was a significant association between level of FEV 1 percent of predicted and self-reported as well as probable ischemic ECG-changes, and this association persisted for self-reported IHD also after adjustment for sex and age. Conclusion In this population-based study, self-reported IHD and probable ischemic ECG-changes were associated with COPD disease severity assessed by spirometry.