Abstract
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Arterial stiffness and endothelial dysfunction index are validated surrogate cardiovascular markers and are increased in subjects with COPD.
We tested whether increased arterial stiffness and endothelial dysfunction occur in symptomatic smokers with no evidence of bronchial obstruction. Clinical and lung functional assessments were conducted in smoker subjects with chronic respiratory symptoms and in COPD patients. Pulse wave velocity (PWV), aortic augmentation index (AIx) and reactive hyperaemia index (RHI) were measured to estimate the cardiovascular risk.
48 smokers (male n=37, female n=11; mean age 70±8.4 years) were studied. Smokers with respiratory symptoms without bronchial obstruction (n=13) did not differ from COPD patients (n=35) in terms of mean±sd PWV (12±3.2 m·s−1 versus 14±3.8 m·s−1; p=0.10), aortic AIx (25.2±11.8% versus 24.8±9.7%, p=0.89) and RHI (1.66±1.49 versus 1.62±1.43; p=0.79).
The current investigation shows that the cardiovascular risk occurs in smokers with respiratory symptoms in the absence of bronchial obstruction. These findings need to be confirmed in larger populations in order to inform the design of intensive preventive programmes.
Abstract
Increased cardiovascular risk occurs in smokers with chronic respiratory symptoms and no airway obstruction http://ow.ly/7mes30cCxW5
Footnotes
Conflict of interest: None declared
- Received March 22, 2017.
- Accepted June 2, 2017.
- Copyright ©ERS 2017
This article is open access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Licence 4.0.