Abstract
Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is considered as a major public health problem in the current era. In India COPD found to be more common in the general population and it is one of the major cause of morbidity and mortality. The chronic airflow limitation is caused by mixture of small airways disease (obstructive bronchiolitis) and parenchymal destruction (emphysema).
Aim: To study and analyse the lung function test, ECG, chest X-ray and haematological parameters among the patients with COPD.
Methodology: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted for a period of 6 months at Dharmapuri Medical college Hospital. Patients with age 40 and above a known case or a newly diagnosed case of COPD and who gave the consent were included in the study. A total of 150 patients with COPD were included in our study. History related to alcohol intake and any other exposure to smoke and dust and any other addiction was noted. A complete general physical examination and systemic examination including a thorough respiratory system examination was conducted. Pre and post bronchodilatory spirometry was performed in all patients as per the ATS guidelines for spirometry.
Results: The X-ray findings for 33.3% of the patients showed features suggestive of chronic bronchitis and for 21% of the patients had features of both chronic bronchitis and emphysema. The most common abnormal ECG finding among the study subjects was right ventricular hypertrophy followed by right atrial enlargement. In the haematological examination we found 31% had mild anemia, 14.5% had moderate and 2.6% had severe anemia. Based on the spirometry readings we found 52% of the patients had moderate COPD, 40.6% had severe COPD and 7.3% had very severe COPD. A strong positive correlation was seen between the cigarette pack years and the severity of COPD (r=0.873), which proves that as the number of cigarette pack years increases the severity of COPD increases.
Conclusion: Patients with dyspnoea and cough should be thoroughly investigated for COPD along with cardiac evaluation with ECG and ECHO so that early intervention can be made to reduce the disease burden both in terms of morbidity and mortality.
Keywords: COPD, spirometry, ECG, haemoglobin, cigarette pack years.
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Corresponding Author
Sasikumar Perumal
Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine,
Government Medical College, Dharmapuri, (TN)
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v6i1.37
