Introduction: More than 90% of the deaths caused by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) occur in the low- and middle -income countries. The main aim of this study was to investigate the lipid profile levels in COPD patients and examine the correlation of total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoproteins, high density lipoproteins, and LDL/HDL risk ratio with COPD stages that are developed by the global initiative for chronic obstructive lung disease (GOLD)
Materials & Methods: A total of 100 COPD patients including 25 COPD non-smokers were enrolled in this study. The diagnosis of COPD was carried out by using the spirometry following the GOLD guidelines (post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume (FEV₁)/forced vital capacity (FVC) ratio < 70% predicted). Accordingly, the patients were divided into four groups based on the severity of their disease in accordance with the GOLD guidelines, including mild COPD (stage I, FEV₁ ≥ 80% predicted), moderate COPD (stage II, 50% ≤ FEV₁ < 80% predicted), severe COPD (stage III, 30% ≤ FEV₁ < 50% predicted), and very severe COPD (stage IV, FEV₁ < 30% predicted). The fasting blood samples of lipid profile were collected. The four COPD groups were compared using the ANOVA test.
Results: According to the results, the majority 53 patients (53%) were in age group 40 to 60 years with mean age of 60.46 +/-11.56. Most of the patients had moderate to severe airflow obstruction (GOLD stages II and III). The severity of COPD had no significant correlation with the triglycerides, LDL, HDL, and LDL/HDL risk ratio. The mean total cholesterol levels in the stages I and IV were 151.92±32.82 and 128.50 ±21.46 mg/dL, respectively, which was statistically significant (P=0.04).
Conclusion: The present study indicates that there was no significant correlation between various lipid profile parameters and severity of COPD.