Abstract

Background: Although chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common comorbidity of chronic heart failure (CHF), whether COPD affects either mortality or morbidity of patients with CHF remains unclear, warranting the elucidation of the impact of COPD on the cardiovascular outcome in patients with CHF.

Methods: Of 1248 patients with CHF hospitalized because of worsening of HF and discharged posttreatment between 2007 and 2009 from our institute, we enrolled 102 non-ischemic CHF patients with dilated cardiomyopathy or hypertensive heart disease.

Results: Patients with and without COPD were 25 and 77 (mean FEV1.0%, 62% ± 16% vs. 89% ± 8%; p < 0.01), respectively. Although the mean age in the COPD group (69 ± 13 years) was higher than the without COPD group (60 ± 16 years; p < 0.05), no significant differences were noted in the baseline patients' characteristics, echocardiographic parameters, such as ejection fraction (32% ± 18% vs. 27% ± 12%), and laboratory data, such as the plasma BNP levels (317 ± 272 vs. 339 ± 392 pg/dL) between the groups with and without COPD, respectively. During the median follow-up of 1239 ± 1069 days, the COPD group faced the higher risk of cardiovascular events (rehospitalization and all-cause mortality) than the without COPD group after the multivariate analyses including age, sex, echocardiographic parameters, and the use of -blockers.

Conclusions: COPD per se worsens the prognosis of patients with CHF. Hence, the comorbidity of COPD merits consideration to treat patients with CHF.