Diagnostic and Prognostic Significance of Lung Function Tests in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease & Cardiovascular Diseases

Abstract

BACKGROUND We wanted to assess the significance of diagnosis and prognosis of lung function tests in chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) & cardiovascular diseases in this study. METHODS This study was conducted among 200 patients in the outpatient departments of General Medicine and Cardiology of King George Hospital/AMC. Data was collected with Spirometer machine (Digital), HELIOS-401, Recorders & Medicare Systems Pvt. Ltd, Haryana, Chandigarh-160002, India. The data were entered into MS Excel and analysed in SPSS v21. RESULTS Of the 200 patients enrolled in the study, 146 (73 %) were males and 54 (27 %) were females with an average age of 50.38 ± 9.86 yrs. In the study population, pulmonary function parameters were significantly different in COPD compared to control and a P- value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The difference in pulmonary function parameters between Controls, COPD, Post MI & Post MI & COPD groups was statistically significant. Whereas the pulmonary function parameters between the post-MI and controls were not statistically significantly different with a P-value of more than 0.05. In the study population, the pulmonary function parameters were significantly different between the Post MI and control, COPD and control, Post MI with COPD and control. CONCLUSIONS The diagnosis of COPD was done by the Lung function test which is considered the gold standard test. The lung function was improved in Post MI cases of more than one-month duration. KEY WORDS Lung Function Tests, COPD, Cardiovascular Diseases, Spirometry