Abstract:Objective To investigate the clinical epidemiological characteristics and clinical symptoms, physiological and biochemical changes of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) complicated with respiratory failure. Methods Totally 196 elderly patients with COPD and respiratory failure in Tianjin Hospital from January 2016 to January 2017 were selected as the case group, and 202 cases of elderly patients with only COPD but no respiratory failure during the same period were collected as the control group. The clinical data, clinical symptoms, pulmonary function tests and biochemical indexes of the two groups of patients in the hospital were retrospectively analyzed. Logistic regression analysis was applied to figure out the causes of respiratory failure in the patients with COPD. Results There was no significant difference in the average age, body mass index or smoking history between the two groups (P > 0.05). The neck circumference of the case group was longer than that of the control group, the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The incidences of complicated cardiovascular diseases and kidney diseases were higher and the time of illness was longer in the case group than in the control group, there were significant differences (P < 0.05). No significant difference was found in cough or sputum between the two groups (P > 0.05). The incidences of dyspnea, COPD complicated with hypoproteinemia, and night arousal in the case group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P < 0.05). The FEV1% predictive value in the case group was much lower than that in the control group, the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Logistic regression analysis revealed that dyspnea, night arousal, hypoproteinemia, history of cardiovascular diseases, kidney disease history, and disease duration were correlated with elderly COPD with respiratory failure and neck circumference (P < 0.05). Conclusions Attention should be paid to the elderly patients with COPD who have the clinical manifestations of dyspnea, nocturnal awakenings, hypoproteinemia and who are combined with cardiovascular disease history, kidney disease history, and long disease duration. The possibility of respiratory failure is greatly increased in such patients.