European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Background: COPD is a leading cause of morbidity worldwide, particularly in developing countries. Heart is the most targetable organ for COPD as systemic complication. The cardiac manifestations of COPD are directly due to pulmonary arterial hypertension and the development of Cor Pulmonale. Objective: To estimate the prevalence of electrocardiographic changes in the COPD  patients and their relation with increasing severity of COPD.  Methods: This hospital Based Cross Sectional Study was conducted in Department of Medicine, Tertiary care centre among Patients of COPD who presents to our hospital during study period.  Results: Most common ECG abnormality was arrhythmia among COPD cases (46.5%) followed by RAD – P wave (46.5%) and p-pulmonale (32.6%). Gender distribution was comparable among cases with and without ECG changes (p-0.147). No association was observed between presence of ECG changes among COPD cases with its duration (p-0.112). A significant association was observed between ECG changes in COPD cases with its severity. A significant association was observed between ECG changes in COPD cases with severity of symptoms. Prevalence of ECG changes increases from 39.5% in CAT gare A to 100% in grade D (p<0.01). Conclusions: ECG abnormalities, were common in cases of COPD, affecting seven out of ten cases and have a significant association with COPD and symptoms severity. The most common electrocardiographic abnormality seen was arrhythmias.