FREQUENCY OF ATRIAL FIBRILLATION IN CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE 1 1 2 Muhammad Arslan, Usama Mansoor, Hafiz Muhammad Jahanzaib Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common disease reported to Pulmonology wards and outdoors. Cardiac complications especially atrial fibrillation are common and add to overall morbidity and mortality. Objective: To determine the frequency of atrial fibrillation in patients of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methodology: This was a cross sectional study carried out at pulmonology ward of Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Medical College Rahim Yar Khan st th from 1 July 2016 to 28 February 2017. In this study, 111 patients having COPD were included. Detailed demographic and co morbid conditions like DM and HTN was taken. These cases then underwent ECG and atrial fibrillation was identified. The data was entered and analyzed by SPSS version 21. Results: In this study, total 111 patients were enrolled out of which 94 (84.7%) were males and 17 (15.3%) were females with mean age of 58.16±9.94 years. There were 7 (6.3%) cases that has DM and 22 (19.8%) cases has Hypertension. Atrial fibrillation was observed in 16 (14.41%) patients. Atrial fibrillation was seen in 4 (25%) out of 16 cases with DM (p= 0.07). Among hypertensive patients it was seen in 8 (50%) out of 16 cases with significant p value of 0.001. There was no significant difference in terms of gender and different age groups with p value of 0.27 and 0.17. Conclusion: Atrial fibrillation is commonly seen in cases of COPD and is significantly higher in cases that has concomitant hypertension. Key words; Atrial fibrillation, COPD, Frequency, DM INTRODUCTION Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common, preventable and treatable disease that is characterized by persistent respiratory symptoms and airflow limitation that is due to airway and/or alveolar abnormalities usually caused by significant exposure to noxious 1 particles or gases. COPD is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality throughout the world. The most common risk factors for COPD are tobacco smoking and exposure to biomass fuels. th COPD is the 5 leading cause of death worldwide rd but it is considered to be at 3 by 2030 due to 2,3 increased incidence of tobacco smoking. Despite of health care efforts and medical research throughout the world, COPD is uprising as cause of mortality unlike other fatal diseases e.g., cardiovascular diseases and cancer, which are 3 facing decline as cause of mortality. Age and smoking are major risk factors for COPD and associated comorbid conditions like diabetes 4,5 mellitus further add to misery of patient. Quality of life is impaired in presence of comorbid 6 conditions even in early stages of COPD. Comorbid conditions may coexist with COPD as independent entity or it may have same risk factors/pathology as that of COPD. Such patients require multiple therapeutic interventional 7,8 approach. Most common comorbid conditions are lung cancer, pulmonary fibrosis, atrial fibrillation/ flutter, congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, cirrhosis of liver, diabetes 9 mellitus and anxiety. The objective of current study was to determine the frequency of atrial fibrillation in patients of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. METHODOLOGY This was a cross sectional study and was carried out at pulmonology ward of Sheikh Zayed Hospital, st th Rahim Yar khan dated from 1 July 2016 to 28 February 2017. In this study, 111 patients having COPD (diagnosed as per guidelines of COPD GOLD 2016) admitted in Pulmonology ward were included. Detailed demographic and other history was taken. Data regarding co morbid conditions like DM and hypertension was also taken. These cases then underwent ECG and atrial fibrillation was identified. The data was entered in SPSS 21 and then analysed. Post stratification chi square test was applied taking p value < 0.05 as significant. Approval from Institutional Review Board was sought before conducted this study. Inclusion criteria: The cases with age range of 40 years or above of either gender that is diagnosed cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as per criteria of COPD GOLD guidelines 2016 were included in this study. Exclusion criteria: The cases suffering from ischemic heart disease, the cases with valvular heart disease and cases with electrolyte imbalance were excluded. Original Article JSZMC Vol.8 No.3 1225 1. Department of Medicine, Sheikh Zayed Medical College/Hospital, Rahim Yar Khan, University of Health Sciences Lahore, Pakistan. 2. Cardiac Surgery Department, Sheikh Zayed Medical College/Hospital, Rahim Yar Khan, University of Health Sciences Lahore, Pakistan. Correspondence: Dr. Muhammad Arslan, Post Graduate Resident in Medicine, Sheikh Zayed Medical College/Hospital, Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan. E-mail: Mobile: Received: 20-05-2017 Accepted: 12-08-2017 ch.arslan160@gmail.com +92345-7300074