Medical News Today -- Patients taking ipratropium bromide, an anticholinergic used in the treatment of COPD, may be at an increased risk for cardiovascular events (CVE), including heart failure. Researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, and Hines VA Hospital in Hines, IL, conducted a cohort study on 82,717 US veterans with a new diagnosis of COPD between 1999 and 2002.