Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a chronic inflammatory disease due to smoking. It is avertable as well as treatable. COPD is a one of the main cause of morbidity and mortality affecting developed and developing countries. We aim to estimate burden of anemia at a tertiary care public sector hospital. Methods: This is a descriptive cross sectional study, done at JPMC Karachi in 2014. All COPD patients admitted in medicine and pulmonology departments were enrolled in this study. After informed consent, data of complete blood count was accessed from medical record and anemia was labeled as per operational definition. Data analyzed by SPSS version 16.0. Frequency and percentage proportion of qualitative variables, mean and standard deviation of numerical values were calculated with P value <0.05 was taken as significant. Results: Of 137 cases, 118(86.13%) were males and 19(13.87%) were females while male to female ratio was 6.2: 1. The average age and weight of the patients was 58.31±12.17 years and 59.36±10.56kg, similarly average duration of disease and hemoglobin of the patients was 5.69±4.42 years and 12.34±1.58 mg/dl respectively. 37.96% (52/137) patients were anemic in our study. Rate of anemia in COPD patients was not significant among age groups (p=0.076) and with duration of disease (p=0.22). Conclusion: Anemia seems to be a common feature in COPD (37.96%), mechanisms involved in the genesis of anemia in COPD are poorly studied. Low hemoglobin level can have adverse effects on certain respiratory parameters in COPD, increasing morbidity and mortality.

Prevention of cognitive disorders and dementia is a major public health issue. Several studies have found a significant association between the existence of arterial hypertension and the onset of cognitive disorders and dementia (vascular or Alzheimer's disease) several years later. Arterial hypertension causes vascular changes that affect blood flow and brain metabolism. Cognitive disorders may be related to the presence of focal ischemic lesions (infarction, lacunae) and/or chronic white matter ischemia (leucoaraiosis) related to damage to the small cerebral arteries (arteriosclerosis). Recent work also suggests that cerebral hypoxia and endothelial function abnormalities lead to changes in the blood-brain barrier leading to an accumulation of β-amyloid protein in the brain and the formation of responsible amyloid plaques. of Alzheimer's disease. Few therapeutic trials have included cognitive assessment and/or diagnosis of dementia. They all raise some important criticisms: cognition is never the primary endpoint, follow-up is too short to study dementia; the evaluation of cognitive functions is very summary, the number of patients "lost to sight" is significant and the subjects at risk of developing dementia are in very low proportion.