• Ulf Nilsson, Bengt Johansson, Berne Eriksson, Anders Blomberg, Bo Lundbäck, and Anne Lindberg.
• Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Division of Medicine, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden. ulf.nilsson@umu.se.
• BMC Pulm Med. 2015 Dec 4; 15: 156.

BackgroundCardiovascular comorbidity in COPD is common and contributes to increased mortality. A few population-based studies indicate that ischemic electrocardiogram (ECG)-changes are more prevalent in COPD, while others do not. The aim of the present study was to estimate the presence of ischemic heart disease (IHD) in a population-based COPD-cohort in comparison with subjects without COPD.MethodsAll subjects with obstructive lung function (COPD, n = 993) were identified together with age- and sex-matched controls (non-COPD, n = 993) from population-based cohorts examined in 2002-04. In 2005, data from structured interview, spirometry and ECG were collected from 1625 subjects. COPD was classified into GOLD 1-4 after post-bronchodilator spirometry. Ischemic ECG-changes, based on Minnesota-coding, were classified according to the Whitehall criteria into probable and possible IHD.ResultsSelf-reported IHD was equally common in COPD and non-COPD, and so were probable and possible ischemic ECG-changes according to Whitehall. After excluding subjects with restrictive spirometric pattern from the non-COPD-group, similar comparison with regard to presence of IHD performed between those with COPD and those with normal lung-function did neither show any differences. There was a significant association between self-reported IHD (p = 0.007) as well as probable ischemic ECG-changes (p = 0.042), and increasing GOLD stage. In COPD there was a significant association between level of FEV1 percent of predicted and self-reported as well as probable ischemic ECG-changes, and this association persisted for self-reported IHD also after adjustment for sex and age.ConclusionIn this population-based study, self-reported IHD and probable ischemic ECG-changes were associated with COPD disease severity assessed by spirometry.

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