Background: The prevalence of airflow limitation (AL) in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) is unknown, and whether AL is adequately diagnosed and treated in these patients has not been investigated before, to our knowledge.
Methods: We compared clinical and spirometric data in three groups of individuals. Two of them were participants in the follow-up of an ongoing population-based study according to the presence or absence of CVD. The third group included patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) confirmed by coronariography regularly visited at a tertiary referral university hospital. AL was defined according to the Global Initiative for Obstructive Lung Disease guidelines.
Results: We studied 450 population participants without CVD, 52 population participants with CVD, and 119 hospital patients with CAD. The prevalence of AL in these three groups was 17.5% (95% CI, 14.0-21.0), 19.2% (95% CI, 8.1-30.7), and 33.6% (95% CI, 25.0-42.2), respectively (P < .05). Underdiagnosis of AL ranged from 60% in population participants with CVD up to 87.2% in hospital patients with CAD. Sixty percent of those with spirometrically confirmed AL (in all three groups) did not receive any respiratory treatment.
Conclusions: AL is frequent in individuals with CVD, particularly in those with CAD attended in the hospital, is largely underdiagnosed and therefore is highly undertreated.
Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov; Identifier: NCT00787748.