<p>Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is in up to 90 % of all cases caused by</p><p>smoking. COPD often has negative effects on circulation, effects that first and foremost can be</p><p>observed as respiratory insufficiency. Reduced function of the right ventricle of the heart is</p><p>common in patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, especially if they</p><p>also have hypoxemi; insufficient levels of oxygen in blood or tissue. The incidence of this</p><p>cardiac complication reduces the survival time. It is possible in chronic obstructive pulmonary</p><p>disease that the pressure in the pulmonary circulation gradually increases resulting in</p><p>pulmonary hypertension followed by a slow adaptation of the right ventricle by hypertrophy of</p><p>the myocardium.</p><p>To investigate a correlation between COPD and pulmonary hypertension COPD patients</p><p>were subjected to spirometry and ultrasound on heart.</p><p>Of 14 examined patients 5 had developed pulmonary hypertension. A correlation between</p><p>obstruction in the COPD- patients and an increase in left ventricular diameter was found.</p><p>DLCO (diffusion capacity) of the lungs is directly connected to PA (pulmonary arterial</p><p>pressure). The lower DLCO, the higher risk to develop pulmonary hypertension. However, we</p><p>could not find a significant correlation between COPD and pulmonary hypertension in this</p><p>study even if most patients had a decreased DLCO.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA/oai:DiVA.org:uu-6152 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Haghighi, Maryam |
| Publisher | Uppsala University, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, text |
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