High Prevalence of Unrecognized Actionable Cardiac Arrhythmias in
Patients with Moderate to Severe Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Abstract
Background Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
(COPD) are at high risk for developing arrhythmias due to hypoxemia,
right heart failure, and the use of beta-agonist inhalers. Symptoms
related to arrhythmias can often be masked or confounded by symptoms
related to COPD exacerbation and remain undiagnosed. With this study, we
identify the incidence of actionable arrhythmias in patients with no
prior cardiology follow-up and moderate-severe COPD with continuous
monitoring. Methods An automatic referral for electrophysiology
(EP) consult was generated in patients with moderate-severe COPD if they
endorsed one of the following: palpitations, dizziness, abnormal ECG, or
near syncope. Eligible patients underwent ILR implantation after
evaluation with an EP specialist and were followed via remote monitoring
for 12 months. A control group of patients without COPD matched for age,
sex, and implant indication were randomly selected in a 3:1 ratio.
Actionable arrhythmias, defined as arrhythmias that correlated with
symptoms triggered by the patient, necessitating EP intervention, were
recorded for both groups. Results In this prospective cohort
study, 21 patients with COPD were enrolled and compared to 63 controls.
COPD patients experienced a significantly higher rate of actionable
arrhythmias compared to the controls (48% vs 11%, p<0.001). EP
interventions in response to actionable arrhythmias included eight
patients initiated on anticoagulation, three catheter ablations, one
implantable cardiac defibrillator, and one permanent pacemaker
implanted. In multivariate analysis, COPD was an independent predictor
of actionable arrhythmias (aOR 4.3, 95% CI 1.2-15.2, p=0.02) when
adjusting for chronic kidney disease and all-cause readmissions.
Conclusion: Continuous monitoring was highly effective in
diagnosing significant arrhythmic events in patients with
moderate-severe COPD. Awareness should be raised about the high
arrhythmic risk in this population and the role of continuous monitoring
should be evaluated in larger studies.