Evaluation of cardiac status in newly diagnosed COPD patients was proposed due to shared risk factors and high cardiovascular morbidity, though no quantitative results were reported.
The study aims to evaluate the cardiac status of newly diagnosed COPD patients at first admission, given the high overlap and shared risk factors between COPD and cardiovascular diseases.
The relationship between two diseases can be said by similar/ common risk factors and contraptions such as smoking, hypoxia, chronic systemic inflammation, advanced age, oxidative stress, endothelial dysfunction, and sympathetic activation. 12,13ue to the overlapping symptoms and signs of COPD and CVD, patients' complaints and clinical findings are often attributed to one disease, while the other disease, if any, can be ignored.For this reason, treatment and management of diseases are often incomplete in some of the cases. 14Early evaluation and initiation of treatment of COPD and CVD patients may reduce morbidity, mortality, and economic burden. 15,16ased on the above information, we thought that some of the newly diagnosed COPD patients may have cardiac diseases. IntroductIonChronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a miscellaneous lung illness manifested by habitual respiratory symptoms due to airflow obstruction of the bronchi (bronchitis, bronchiolitis) and/or air sacs (emphysema), causing permanent, frequently progressive tailwind restriction. 1,2In the records of the World Health Organization (WHO), COPD is seen as the fourth cause of death, and 3 million people lose their lives every year due to this reason.In our country, COPD is the third cause of death. 3During the natural course of COPD, many extrapulmonary findings and comorbidities occur that undergo the follow-up of the cases and lead to changes in prognosis and quality of life. 4Deterioration in psychological status is reported at increasing rates in COPD patients.The prevalence of psychological distress was found to be 58% in hospitalized patients due to COPD, 42% in COPD outpatient clinic patients, and 21% in other respiratory diseases. 5igh rates of cardiac morbidity and mortality are seen in COPD cases.The rate of coronary heart disease and heart failure (HF) in patients diagnosed with COPD over the age of 45 is higher than in those without COPD. 6Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and COPD are responsible for >50% of smoking-related deaths and are often found together. 7COPD is both an important and selfcontained risk factor for CVD. 8 Cardiovascular pathologies are important determinants of morbidity and mortality of COPD.The copresence of COPD with HF is associated with a poor prognosis. 9,10Conventional echocardiography showed that advanced COPD was associated with biventricular dysfunction. 11
Özkarafakılı et al. (2024) studied Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Evaluation of cardiac status in newly diagnosed COPD patients was proposed due to shared risk factors and high cardiovascular morbidity, though no quantitative results were reported.