Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and ventricular arrhythmia – association or causation?

In this edition of the journal, Konecny et al. retrospectively examine the association between airflow obstruction and ventricular tachycardia (VT) in 6351 patients with documented spirometry, Holter monitoring and echocardiography at the Mayo clinic.1 Non-sustained VT (NSVT) was more common in patients with compared to without obstruction (23% versus 13%), correlated with percent predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), and remained independently associated with obstruction after adjustment for confounders including left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) (adjusted odds ratio 1.33 (95% CI 1.15 – 1.54).
Source: Heart Rhythm - Category: Cardiology Authors: Source Type: research