Having a lung disease could raise the risk of heart conditions regardless of other risk factors such as smoking or age, a recent study has revealed.
The researchers from the University of Birmingham made the interesting finding using a trial involving more than 220 patients with a rare genetic condition called Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) which causes lung disease similar to Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD). The results were published in the Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases.
AATD causes the body to make low levels of a protein that protects the lungs. The affected individuals may develop symptoms including chronic cough, shortness of breath, and wheezing.
For the trial, patients with AATD were evaluated against patients with COPD and a control group of participants with no lung disease for risk factors of cardiovascular disease such as vascular stiffness. Vascular stiffness typically occurs with age and is closely associated with the progression of cardiovascular disease. The participants were followed up for four years to see if they developed any heart disease.
“The patients with the rare genetic condition AATD had the highest adjusted scores among all participants for vascular stiffness, but had lowest scores for the standard associated risk factors of CVD and nearly half (45%) of patients had discordant scores where one was high and other low,” the researchers said in the University news release.
Despite having lower risk factors typically associated with developing cardiovascular disease such as being younger and having a higher proportion of individuals who had never smoked, 12.7% of the participants with AATD developed cardiovascular disease within the follow-up period.
Meanwhile, the patients with COPD and control group participants had similar scores across the direct and indirect measures of cardiovascular disease risk.
“This long-term study has enabled us to see the relationship between lung disease and heart disease in a unique way by…
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