Open AccessBreathlessness, but not cough, suggests chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in elderly smokers with stable heart failure
Author(s) -
Enrico Clini,
Sara Roversi,
Bianca Beghé,
Michela Schito,
Martina Garofalo,
Mariarita Stendardo,
Valentina Ruggieri,
Roberto Tonelli,
Alessandro Fucili,
Roberto D’Amico,
Federico Banchelli,
Leonardo Fabbri
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
multidisciplinary respiratory medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.72
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 2049-6958
pISSN - 1828-695X
DOI - 10.4081/mrm.2018.185
Subject(s) - copd , medicine , heart failure , comorbidity , phlegm , logistic regression , pulmonary disease , observational study , pulmonary function testing , physical therapy , prospective cohort study , odds ratio , intensive care medicine , cardiology , pathology , traditional chinese medicine , alternative medicine
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common comorbidity of heart failure (HF), but remains often undiagnosed, and we aimed to identify symptoms predicting COPD in HF. As part of an observational, prospective study, we investigated stable smokers with a confirmed diagnosis of HF, using the 8-item COPD-Assessment-Test (CAT) questionnaire to assess symptoms. All the items were correlated with the presence of COPD, and logistic regression models were used to identify independent predictors. 96 HF patients were included, aged 74, 33% with COPD. Patients with HF and COPD were more symptomatic, but only breathlessness when walking up a hill was an independent predictor of COPD (odds ratio = 1.33, p = 0.0484). Interestingly, COPD-specific symptoms such as cough and phlegm were not significant. Thus, in elderly smokers with stable HF, significant breathlessness when walking up a hill is most indicative of associated COPD, and may indicate the need for further lung function evaluation.