[Spirometry and echocardiography use in hospitalised patients due to COPD or heart failure]

There is no information on the use of the spirometry as a confirmatory tool for the diagnosis of COPD at the hospital setting. To determine the pattern of use of the spirometry (SPIR) in comparison with the use of the echocardiography (ECHO) in heart failure (HF).

We included those patients that during one year they were discharge with the primary diagnosis of "COPD exacerbation" or "Heart Failure" (codes: ICM-9-CM: 491.21 y 428). From the generated list, history charts were reviewed and original SPIR and ECHO were pooled out from the pulmonary function test and non-invasive cardiac unit departments.

Among 408 patients with COPD, SPIR was done in 110 (27%) and among 328 patients with HF, ECHO was prescribed in 250 (76%) (p < 0,001). COPD group was younger (71.8 +/- 9.8 vs. 74.9 +/- 10.6, p < 0,001), but no other differences were found with HF group. Among those patients who had SPIR, age was lower (69.5 +/- 9.1 vs. 72.5 +/- 9.9, p=0,005) and there was a high % of in-patients carried by pulmonology versus internal medicine (30 vs. 13%, p < 0,002) comparing with the group of patients who had no SPIR.

We found a small percentage of COPD patients who had spirometry during hospitalization due to COPD exacerbation. This peculiar pattern of the limited use of the confirmatory diagnostic test appear disease-specific since we also found a large percentage of patient with heart failure who had echocardiography during their hospitalization.