Assessment of right ventricular function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by echocardiography and its correlation with severity of the disease

 

Kothai G¹, Ekanthalingam^2*, Sharavanan T K V³, Prasanna K B⁴, Prasanna Karthik S⁵

 

¹Associate Professor, Department of General Medicine, ESIC Medical College & PGIMSR, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, INDIA.

²Assistant Professor, ³Professor, ⁴Associate Professor, Department of General Medicine, Tagore Medical College and Hospital, Rathinamangalam, INDIA.

⁵Associate Professor, Department of General Medicine, Saveetha Medical College and Hospital, Thandalam, INDIA.

Email: heartthrobe_kg@yahoo.co.in

 

Abstract              Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients presents with persistent respiratory symptoms and airflow limitation. But the morbidity in such patients is not only because of the pulmonary disease but is also caused by the associated cardiovascular changes. Assessment of the right ventricular changes forms a major part of the cardiac assessment. Transthoracic 2D echocardiography is a simple, effective and non-invasive method to assess the right ventricular function and dynamics. This study was designed to identify those changes in 100 patients with various grades of COPD Materials and Methods: The study was carried out as prospective observational study among 100 patients attending a tertiary care hospital in Tamilnadu. Spirometry, ECG and transthoracic 2D echocardiography were done in all patients. Results: There were 70 males in the study and the mean age of the patients was 59.73 ± 9.45 years. There were 58 smokers and all of them were males. 43% of patients had moderate disease and 33% had severe or very severe disease. The most common electrocardiographic abnormality was right axis deviation (44%). 46 % of patients had Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension. 38% had RV dilatation and 44% had left ventricular diastolic dysfunction. Conclusion: ECHO Doppler evaluation of COPD patients should be used as a risk stratification tool for assessing RV function and pulmonary artery pressure and should constitute part of a periodic screening tool for all COPD patients.

Key Words: COPD, Echocardiography, Pulmonary hypertension, RV function.