Narinder Kaur, Sukhjinder Kaur Dhillon
BACKGROUND Chronic Obstructive pulmonary disease is the name of a group of chronic and slowly progressive respiratory disorders characterized by decreased expiratory flow during forced exhalation. COPD broadly consists of two pathological conditionsemphysema and chronic bronchitis. Autonomic abnormalities have been consistently found in COPD. The airflow limitation is usually both progressive and associated with an abnormal inflammatory response of the lungs to noxious particles or gases. So, this study was done to study changes in parasympathetic activity in patients of COPD and to compare them with normal subjects. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was carried out on 60 male COPD patients and 40 healthy subjects taken as controls. For testing parasympathetic activity, heart rate variation with postural change, Valsalva manoeuvre and deep breathing were recorded. RESULTS The mean values of 30:15 ratio showed significant decline in COPD patients as compared to normal subjects. The variation in heart rate in response to Valsalva manoeuvre and in response to deep breathing was highly significant between the two groups. CONCLUSION From the results thus obtained, it can be concluded that there is significant decrease of parasympathetic nervous system activity in patients of COPD as compared to controls.
