Is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease associated with increased arterial stiffness?

Jorgen Vestbo, Julie H. Janner, David A. McAllister, Nina S. Godtfredsen, Eva Prescott, Jørgen Vestbo

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Objective: We hypothesize that airflow limitation is associated with increasing arterial stiffness and that having COPD increases a non-invasive measure of arterial stiffness - the aortic augmentation index (AIx) - independently of other CVD risk factors. Methods: This population study is based on 3374 subjects from the Copenhagen City Heart Study; 494 had COPD. We used multiple linear regression analyses to examine the association between COPD and AIx adjusted for CVD risk factors. Furthermore, we analyzed the association between AIx and FEV 1, FVC and FEV 1/FVC in the entire population. Results: AIx was higher in subjects with COPD than in subjects without: 25.7 vs. 21.0 (p <0.001) in men and 33.6 vs. 29.4 (p <0.001) in women. We found no increase in AIx with COPD adjusted for CVD risk factors: difference 0.63 (-0.26 to 1.52, p = 0.16). In sensitivity analyses in subjects younger than 60 years with exclusion of mild COPD from the analyses, COPD was associated with an increase in AIx in men only of 4.1 (0.88-7.22, p = 0.007). AIx had a curvilinear association with FEV 1 and FVC but no association with the FEV 1/FVC ratio. Conclusion: AIx and COPD are only weakly associated. In the general population, this finding argues against increased arterial stiffness, as measured by AIx, being a complication of COPD. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)397-405
    Number of pages8
    JournalRespiratory Medicine
    Volume106
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Mar 2012

    Keywords

    • Arterial stiffness
    • Augmentation index
    • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
    • Epidemiology

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