Association between comorbid COPD or chronic bronchitis and the prognosis of patients with Dilated cardiomyopathy.

Aims: Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is characterized by unilateral or bilateral ventricular enlargement and reduced ventricular systolic function, with or without heart failure. In previous studies, we found that a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or chronic bronchitis is a high risk factor for DCM combined with pulmonary hypertension (PH). Therefore, we propose that the comorbidity of COPD or chronic bronchitis will increase the cardiogenic mortality of patients with DCM.

Methods: Data were collected from patients with DCM who were admitted to The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine from October 2008 to April 2020. The primary endpoint was cardiac death. Multivariable Cox regression analyses were employed to assess the associations between the comorbidities COPD or chronic bronchitis with the study endpoints. Different adjusting models were used to adjust for potential confounders.

Results: A total of 305 DCM patients were ultimately enrolled, among whom 46 patients had COPD or chronic bronchitis. The median follow-up was 50 months. The rate of cardiac death in the COPD or chronic bronchitis group was significantly greater than that in the non-COPD or nonchronic bronchitis group ( < 0.001). The associations between comorbid COPD or chronic bronchitis and cardiac death remained robust after eliminating the possible effects of confounders. After grouping by PH, the risk difference was mainly derived from the intermediate- or high-probability PH group.

Conclusions: Comorbid COPD or chronic bronchitis increased the risk of cardiac death among DCM patients with an intermediate or high PH probability.