Symptoms of advanced cor pulmonale, beware of these complications

Cor pulmonale is most common in patients with chronic lung disease and frequent smokers. This disease is not contagious, but it can cause some complications, such as arrhythmia, lung lesions, and especially in the late stages, symptoms of respiratory failure are prone to occur, and shock should be avoided.

1. Pulmonary encephalopathy: a syndrome of mental disorders and neurological symptoms caused by hypoxia and carbon dioxide retention due to respiratory failure. However, cerebral arteriosclerosis, severe electrolyte imbalance, simple alkali poisoning, infectious toxic encephalopathy, etc. must be excluded. It is the leading cause of death from cor pulmonale and should be actively prevented and treated.

2. Acid-base imbalance and electrolyte disorder: When respiratory failure occurs in cor pulmonale, due to hypoxia and carbon dioxide retention, when the body exerts its maximum compensatory ability and still cannot maintain homeostasis, various types of acid-base imbalance and electrolyte disorder may occur, making respiratory failure, heart failure, and arrhythmia worse. It is of great significance for treatment and prognosis, and monitoring should be carried out and treatment measures should be taken in time.

3. Arrhythmia: It is mostly manifested as atrial premature beats and paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, among which disordered atrial tachycardia is the most characteristic. There may also be atrial flutter and atrial fibrillation. In a few cases, ventricular fibrillation and even cardiac arrest may occur due to acute and severe myocardial hypoxia. Care should be taken to differentiate it from arrhythmias caused by digitalis poisoning, etc.

4. Shock: Shock caused by cor pulmonale is not common, but once it occurs, the prognosis is poor. The causes include: ① infectious toxic shock; ② hemorrhagic shock, mostly caused by upper gastrointestinal bleeding; ③ cardiogenic shock, caused by severe heart failure or arrhythmia.

5. Gastrointestinal bleeding.

6. Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC).