ABSTRACT

Pulmonary hypertension is a common complication among patients with advanced stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In communities using animal biomass fuels, biomass exposure causes COPD in females as much as it does in males, or even more. The aim of our study was to investigate the existence of pulmonary hypertension in biomass-exposed females.

Ninety non-smoking female patients who were previously exposed to biomass and underwent echocardiography examinations were retrospectively analyzed. Fifty-two of these patients who were diagnosed with COPD, according to GOLD criteria, were included in the study as the study group and 12 patients with no respiratory problem and normal respiratory function test were included as the control group. Systolic pulmonary arterial pressure (sPAB) of >35 mmHg was accepted as the presence of suspected pulmonary hypertension.

High sPAB was detected in the study group, according to reference value (38.3±10.7). In the control group, sPAB was found to be 32.5±7.6 mmHg. However, no statistical significance in sPAB was found between the two groups.

In our study, the absolute value of sPAB was determined to be higher in the biomass-exposed COPD patients than in the normal controls. However, no statistical significance in echocardiography measurements was observed between the control and COPD patients. These results suggest that biomass exposure is related to pulmonary hypertension even without respiratory symptoms. As a result, cohort studies on the relationship between biomass exposure and pulmonary hypertension will help increase awareness of a very important public health problem and help decrease biomass exposure.

Keywords: Biomass, pulmonary hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease