Abstract Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is currently one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Prediction of hospital course in those patients would be of great help in understanding their future prognosis. BODE index calculation (Body mass index, airflow Obstruction, Dyspnea and Exercise capacity) has been shown to be promising in this respect.
Objective: This study aimed to find out if arterial blood gases (ABG) is correlated with BODE index in predicting the future hospital course of COPD patients? Patients and methods: One hundred and twenty stable COPD patients were included in this study. They were studied through: history taking, clinical examination, plain chest x-ray, spirometry, BODE index calculation, arterial blood gases, routine laboratory tests, echocardiography. All patients were followed up for 6 months for their hospital course The data were Statistically analyzed for significance Results: The Mean ± SD of BODE index of the studied cases was 4.82 ± 1.88. Ninety-five patients (79.2%) visited emergency room frequently and 55 patients were admitted to hospital (45.8%). Nine patients (7.5%) died during the 6 months follow up. BODE index had a negative correlation with each of PaO2 and PH while it was positively correlated with each of: PaCO2, number of visits to emergency room and admission to hospital (P