The Association between Beta-blocker Use and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Risk, Severity, and Exacerbation

Abstract

Background: There is controversy about the role of beta-blockers in the number of acute exacerbations in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Objectives: The study aimed to find the role of beta-blockers using in the exacerbation number in patients with COPD in the presence of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Materials and Methods: In this comparative study, patients who attended the internal medicine department of two general hospitals in Erbil city and diagnosed with COPD with any CVD were included between April and November 2018. Results: The beta-blocker-using COPD patients were older compared to nonusing beta-blocker COPD patients (64.67 vs. 59.95 years, respectively) and had more comorbidities of myocardial infarction (28.1%) and heart failure (28.1%) (P < 0.001). The study showed no significant difference in acute exacerbations (0.50 vs. 0.47; P= 0.821), forced expiratory volume 1 level (62.19 vs. 60.44; P= 0.544), between the user and nonuser beta-blockers, respectively. There was no significant difference in the number of acute exacerbations between COPD patients with CVD and without comorbidity in beta-blocker users; 0.45 versus 0.50; P= 0.820. While in nonusers of beta-blockers, the COPD patients with CVD had a significantly higher number of exacerbations (1.29) compared to those COPD patients without comorbidity (0.45; P= 0.020). The COPD beta-blocker using patients with CVD had significantly less number of exacerbation compared to those COPD nonusing beta-blocker patients with CVD. Conclusions: The present study showed that COPD patients who used beta-blockers have a substantially lower number of acute exacerbations in the last year compared to those COPD patients who did not use beta-blockers.