Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a multi-system disorder with important systemic co-morbidities. These include increased cardiovascular (CV) risk which accounts for 30–50% of deaths. Cross-sectional studies have identified increased arterial stiffness in COPD, however there is no validated prognostic CV risk predictor.

Methods: The ARCADE is a longitudinal study of up to 1500 patients with confirmed COPD. Assessments include pulmonary function (spirometry), arterial stiffness (aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV)), blood pressure (BP), blood biochemistry and 6-minute walking distance (6MWD). These assessments will be repeated after two and five years.

Results: Thus far 300 patients have been compared to 36 controls (table 1). Mean PWV, systolic BP, and HsCRP was higher in patients than controls, and lung function impaired in patients with COPD. These differences remained after adjustment for age. Although mean blood pressure was similar, on assessment more patients (n= 185, 62%) met the criteria for hypertension (>140/90mmHg) than controls (n=16, 44%). More patients with COPD were on treatment for hypertension (n= 138, controls =3, p=<0.001) and hypercholesterolemia (n=107 controls =7, p=0.04). In patients, PWV related to the number of co-morbidities (r=0.377, p<0.05).

Conclusions: This is the first study to evaluate the progression of the systemic components of COPD over the medium to longer term. The results to date confirm previous findings of elevated PWV and increased CV risk factors. The longitudinal assessments will inform the understanding of the rate and cause of arterial stiffness and other systemic components in COPD, and may guide therapeutic interventions.