Frequency of pulmonary hypertension in patients with COPD due to biomass smoke and tobacco smoke.

OBJECTIVES

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a common and well established complication of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Its presence is associated with decreased survival. This study was designed to investigate the PH frequency and its relations in hospitalized tobacco and biomass related COPD patients.

METHODS AND RESULTS

The study was a retrospective review of inpatients with COPD defined as a history of tobacco or biomass smoking, Pulmonary function tests (PFT) within stable status, an echocardiogram within stable status. PH was defined as systolic pulmonary artery pressure (sPAP) >35 mmHg. Of the 694 individuals, 600 had suitable aspects for inclusion of study. All Females were biomass exposer and males were tobacco smoker. The Prevalence of PH was found more frequent in females than males. It was more prominent in moderate level COPD cases (56,2% and 37,5%, P<0,002). Both groups had airflow limitation, hypercapnia and hypoxemia, but no differences were found in terms of PaCO(2) and PaO2. However, FEV1 % was lower in males than females (p<0,005). On the other hand, FVC % was lower in the females compared with the males (p < 0.02). When analyzing the influence of PFT and demographic parameters on PH in separate COPD level groups, the results a bit varied among the groups.

CONCLUSION

Our study demonstrated that PH frequency is higher in female COPD cases due to biomass smoke than in male COPD cases due to tobacco smoke. The influence of FVC % on the risk of a person having PH increased with increasing COPD level.