The Prevalence of Liver Diseases among Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients: Statistics from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Background: Alpha-1 antitrypsin is an important protein produced by the liver, and deficiency in this protein will cause many liver diseases. A deficiency in this protein can cause congenital emphysema, characterized by damaged and stretched air sacs of the lungs. To our knowledge, limited studies have been performed on liver disease prevalence among chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients in Saudi Arabia.

Methods: This study was a secondary data analysis of existing clinical records and aimed at determining the prevalence and association of liver diseases among COPD patients from 2016 to 2020. A total of 1579 clinical records were collected. In this study we analyzed one hundred fifty-five records.

Results: Senior patients who were aged 65 or older represented most patients (61.29%). In addition, 81% of the selected COPD patients were diagnosed with cirrhosis, while only one patient was diagnosed with fibrosis. Senior COPD patients aged 65 years or older were more likely to be diagnosed clinically with any type of liver disease (61.75%) than those from younger age groups.

Conclusions: Screening and expression tests for patients showing liver and lung diseases are the procedures to determine whether symptoms are due to alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. However, this is challenging in patients with COPD.