Carotid Artery Disease and Lower Extremities Artery Disease in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

To assess the frequency of carotid artery disease (CAD) and lower extremities artery disease (LEAD) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and their relation to the severity of airflow limitation and the level of C-reactive protein (CRP).

We performed a cross-sectional study including 60 patients with COPD (52 male, 8 female), aged 40 to 80 years, initially diagnosed according to the actual criteria. Also, 30 subjects in whom COPD was excluded, matched to COPD patients by sex, age, body mass index and smoking status, served as controls. All study subjects completed questionnaire and underwent pulmonary evaluation (dyspnea severity assessment, baseline and post-bronchodilator spirometry, gas analyses, and chest X-ray), angiological evaluation by Doppler ultrasonography and measurement of serum CRP level.

We found a statistically significant difference between the frequency of carotid plaques in COPD patients as compared to their frequency in controls (65% vs 30%; P = 0.002). The mean value of intima-media thickness (IMT) in COPD patients with CAD was significantly higher than its mean value in controls (0.8 ± 0.2 vs. 0.7 ± 0.2; P = 0.049). IMT value in COPD patients with CAD was significantly related to the degree of airflow limitation, i.e. to the degree of FEV1 decline (P = 0.000), as well as to the serum CRP level (P = 0.001). We found a statistically significant difference between the frequency of COPD patients with LEAD as compared to the frequency of LEAD in controls (78.3% vs 43.3%; P = 0.001). According to the Fontaine classification, COPD patients with LEAD were categorized in the stages I, IIA and IIB (53.3%, 30% and 16.7%, respectively), whereas all controls with LEAD were categorized in the Fontaine stage I. Among COPD patients with LEAD there was significant association between disease severity and clinical manifestations due to the vascular changes (P = 0.001) and serum CRP level (P = 0.001).

Our findings suggest higher prevalence and higher severity of vascular changes in COPD patients as compared to their prevalence and severity in non-COPD subjects. Prevalence and severity of vascular changes in COPD patients were significantly related to the severity of airflow limitation and serum CRP levels.