Abstract
Clear evidence for an association between systemic inflammation and increased arterial stiffness in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is lacking. Moreover, the effects of pulmonary rehabilitation on arterial stiffness are not well studied.
We aimed to 1) confirm increased arterial stiffness in COPD; 2) evaluate its correlates including systemic inflammation; and 3) study whether or not it is influenced by pulmonary rehabilitation.
Aortic pulse-wave velocity (APWV) was determined in 168 healthy volunteers, and APWV and inflammatory markers were determined in 162 COPD patients during baseline evaluation of a pulmonary rehabilitation programme. A complete post-pulmonary rehabilitation dataset was collected in 129 patients.
It was found that APWV was increased in COPD patients when compared with controls, blood pressure and age predicted baseline APWV, and systemic inflammatory markers were not independently related to APWV. Although baseline APWV was predictive for the change in APWV after pulmonary rehabilitation (r= -0.77), on average APWV did not change (10.7±2.7 versus 10.9±2.5 m·s−1; p=0.339).
Arterial stiffness in COPD is not related to systemic inflammation and does not respond to state-of-the-art pulmonary rehabilitation. These results emphasise the complexity of cardiovascular risk and its management in COPD.
Abstract
Arterial stiffness in COPD is not related to systemic inflammation and does not respond to pulmonary rehabilitation http://ow.ly/tGW42
Footnotes
This article has supplementary material available from www.erj.ersjournals.com
Support statement: This study was supported by a research grant from AstraZeneca.
Conflict of interest: Disclosures can be found alongside the online version of this article at www.erj.ersjournals.com
- Received September 27, 2013.
- Accepted November 14, 2013.
- ©ERS 2014