Study: Use of bronchodilators linked with increased risks of cardiovascular events

May 21 2013

A study of older patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) suggests that new use of the long-acting bronchodilators β-agonists and anticholinergics was associated with similar increased risks of cardiovascular events, according to a study published Online First by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.

COPD affects more than 1 in 4 Americans older than 35 years of age and is the third leading cause of death in the United States. Medications are a mainstay of management of the disease. While there is little controversy about the effectiveness of long-acting β-agonists (LABAs) and long-acting anticholinergics (LAAs), their cardiovascular safety remains a matter of debate, according to the study background.

Andrea Gershon, M.D., M.S., of the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues conducted a nested case control analysis of a retrospective cohort study and compared the risk of cardiovascular events between patients newly prescribed the inhaled long-acting medications.

The study used health care databases from Ontario and included all individuals 66 years or older with a diagnosis of COPD who were treated from September 2003 through March 2009.

Of 191,005 eligible patients, 53,532 (28 percent) had a hospitalization or an emergency department visit for a cardiovascular event. According to the results, newly prescribed long-acting inhaled bronchodilators β-agonists and anticholinergics were associated with higher risk of a cardiovascular event compared with nonuse of those medications (respective adjusted odds ratios, 1.31 and 1.14). The results also indicate there was no significant difference in events between the two medications.

"Among older individuals with COPD, new use of long-acting β-agonists and anticholinergics is associated with similar increased risks of cardiovascular events. Close monitoring of COPD patients requiring long-acting bronchodilators is needed regardless of drug class," the study concludes.
(JAMA Intern Med. Published online May 20, 2013. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.1016. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com.)

Editor's Note: This study was supported by the government of Ontario, Canada, and various other funding sources. Please see article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

Invited Commentary: Double-edged Sword? Long-Acting Bronchodilators in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

In an invited commentary, Prescott G. Woodruff, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of California, San Francisco, writes: "No pharmacotherapy has been shown to meaningfully alter the rate of progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, inhaled long-acting bronchodilators are mainstays of treatment in moderate to severe COPD because they improve lung function, dyspnea [shortness of breath], rate of exacerbations and quality of life."

"Ultimately, clinical trial data do not fully resolve the question of cardiovascular risks with LAMAs [muscarinic antagonists termed long-acting anticholinergics by Gershon et al] and LABAs [long-acting inhaled β-agonists] because some of the data are discordant and because clinical trials generally exclude patients at greatest risk for cardiovascular complications," Woodruff continues.

Source: University of California