Nishida Y, et al. – This research was a comprehensive analysis of the association between a medical history of 22 disease categories and the presence of airflow limitation (AL) without any history of asthma or bronchiectasis, compatible with COPD. The findings suggested that a history of heart disease leading to abnormal cardiac function could be related to AL and that the presence of certain types of heart disease provides a rationale to evaluate lung status and look for respiratory impairment, including COPD.

Methods

• An aggregate of eleven thousand, eight hundred ninety-eight Japanese patients aged ≥ 40 years, who underwent spirometry tests, comprising patients with AL (n=2,309) or without AL (n=9,589), were assessed.
• Generalized estimating equations were utilized to evaluate the connection between the presence of AL and each disease.
• The model was adjusted for age, sex, body mass index (BMI) and pack-years of smoking.

Results

• In multivariate analysis, female sex (odds ratio [OR]: 0.59; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.52–0.67), age (OR for 10-year age increase: 1.99; CI: 1.90–2.09), BMI (OR for 1 kg/m² increase: 0.96; CI: 0.95–0.98) and smoking history (<15 vs 15–24, 25–49 and ≥50 pack-years; OR: 1.78, 2.6 and 3.69, respectively; CI: 1.46–2.17, 2.24–3.0 and 3.15–4.33, respectively) were significantly related to the presence of AL.
• The data presented in this work showed a history of tuberculosis (OR: 1.72; CI: 1.39–2.11), primary lung cancer (OR: 1.50; CI: 1.28–1.77), myocardial infarction (OR: 1.22; CI: 1.01–1.48), heart failure (OR: 1.53; CI: 1.29–1.81), arrhythmia (OR: 1.19; CI: 1.03–1.38) or heart valve disorder (OR: 1.33; CI: 1.14–1.56) was significantly related to the presence of AL, after adjustment.