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Association Between Leukocyte Telomere Length and the Risk of Incident Atrial Fibrillation: The Framingham Heart Study.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Advancing age is a prominent risk factor for atrial fibrillation (AF). Shorter telomere length is a biomarker of biological aging, but the link between shorter telomere length and increased risk of AF remains unclear. We examined the association between shorter leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and incident AF. METHODS AND RESULTS:We included AF-free participants from the observational Framingham Heart Study Offspring cohort from 1995 to 1998, who had LTL measurements. We examined the association between baseline LTL and incident AF with multivariable Cox models adjusted for age, sex, current smoking, height, weight, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, use of antihypertensive medication, diabetes mellitus, history of myocardial infarction, and history of heart failure. The study sample comprised 1143 AF-free participants (52.8% women), with mean age of 60±8 years. The mean LTL at baseline was 6.95±0.57 kb. During 15.1±4.2 years mean follow-up, 184 participants (64 women) developed AF. Chronological age was associated with increased risk of AF (hazard ratio per 10-year increase, 2.16; 95% confidence interval, 1.71-2.72). There was no significant association between LTL and incident AF (hazard ratio per 1 SD decrease LTL, 1.01; 95% confidence interval, 0.86-1.19). Our study was observational in nature; hence, we could not exclude residual confounding and we were unable to establish causal pathways. CONCLUSIONS:In our moderate-sized community-based cohort, we did not find evidence for a significant association between LTL and risk of incident AF.

SUBMITTER: Staerk L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5721755 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Association Between Leukocyte Telomere Length and the Risk of Incident Atrial Fibrillation: The Framingham Heart Study.

Staerk Laila L Wang Biqi B Lunetta Kathryn L KL Helm Robert H RH Ko Darae D Sherer Jason A JA Ellinor Patrick T PT Lubitz Steven A SA McManus David D DD Vasan Ramachandran S RS Benjamin Emelia J EJ Trinquart Ludovic L

Journal of the American Heart Association 20171114 11

<h4>Background</h4>Advancing age is a prominent risk factor for atrial fibrillation (AF). Shorter telomere length is a biomarker of biological aging, but the link between shorter telomere length and increased risk of AF remains unclear. We examined the association between shorter leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and incident AF.<h4>Methods and results</h4>We included AF-free participants from the observational Framingham Heart Study Offspring cohort from 1995 to 1998, who had LTL measurements. We ...[more]

PMID: 29138179

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Project description:BackgroundThere have been conflicting reported associations between dietary factors and incident atrial fibrillation (AF).ObjectiveWe evaluated associations between consumption of alcohol, caffeine, fiber, and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and incident AF in the Framingham Heart Study.DesignParticipants without AF (n = 4526; 9640 examinations; mean age: 62 y; 56% women) from the original and offspring cohorts completed food-frequency questionnaires and were followed prospectively for 4 y. We examined the associations between dietary exposures and AF with Cox proportional hazards regression.ResultsA total of 296 individuals developed AF (177 men, 119 women). In multivariable analyses, there were no significant associations between examined dietary exposures and AF risk. Hazard ratios (HRs) for increasing quartiles of dietary factors were as follows: for alcohol, 0.73 (95% CI: 0.5, 1.05), 0.85 (95% CI: 0.61, 1.18), and 1.12 (95% CI: 0.83, 1.51) (P for trend = 0.48); for caffeine, 0.84 (95% CI: 0.62, 1.15), 0.87 (95% CI: 0.64, 1.2), and 0.98 (95% CI: 0.7, 1.39) (P for trend = 0.84); for total fiber, 0.86 (95% CI: 0.61, 1.2), 0.64 (95% CI: 0.44, 0.92), and 0.81 (95% CI: 0.54, 1.2) (P for trend = 0.16); and for n-3 (omega-3) PUFAs, 1.11 (95% CI: 0.81, 1.54), 0.92 (95% CI: 0.65, 1.29), and 1.18 (95% CI: 0.85, 1.64) (P for trend = 0.57; quartile 1 was the reference group). In exploratory analyses, consumption of >4 servings of dark fish/wk (5 cases and 21 individuals at risk) was significantly associated with AF risk compared with the consumption of <1 serving of dark fish/wk (HR: 6.53; 95% CI: 2.65, 16.06; P < 0.0001).ConclusionsConsumption of alcohol, caffeine, fiber, and fish-derived PUFAs was not significantly associated with AF risk. The observed adverse association between the consumption of dark fish and AF merits further investigation. Our findings suggest that the dietary exposures examined convey limited attributable risk of AF in the general population.

Dataset Information

Association Between Leukocyte Telomere Length and the Risk of Incident Atrial Fibrillation: The Framingham Heart Study.

Publications

Association Between Leukocyte Telomere Length and the Risk of Incident Atrial Fibrillation: The Framingham Heart Study.

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