Cardiac arrhythmias during exercise in severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

We studied the effect of maximal exercise on the prevalence of arrhythmias in 122 subjects with severe COPD. At rest, ten subjects had supraventricular arrhythmias while 13 had unifocal VPB greater than or equal to 6/min or ventricular bigeminy. At peak exercise, six subjects had supraventricular arrhythmias while 24 had VAs. Univariate and multivariate analysis with logistic regression did not show relationships between exercise-related cardiac arrhythmias and the severity of pulmonary disease, oxyhemoglobin desaturation or ECG evidence of chronic lung disease. Exercise-related arrhythmias were significantly associated with the presence of arrhythmias at rest and 87 percent of subjects who had no arrhythmias at rest did not have any during exercise. In patients with COPD, the development of potentially serious arrhythmias during exercise is uncommon without clinically apparent CAD or arrhythmias at rest. However, routine cardiac monitoring during exercise testing should not be abandoned in this population since VAs can occur despite their absence at rest.