Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Feb:1:198-205.
doi: 10.1016/j.cophys.2017.11.005. Epub 2017 Dec 13.

Cardiac pathophysiology in response to environmental stress: a current review

Affiliations

Cardiac pathophysiology in response to environmental stress: a current review

Vineeta Tanwar et al. Curr Opin Physiol. 2018 Feb.

Abstract

Purpose: Environmental stressors are disturbing our ecosystem at an accelerating rate. An increasingly relevant stressor are air pollutants, whose levels are increasing worldwide with threats to human health. These air pollutants are associated with increased mortality and morbidity from cardiovascular diseases. In this review we discuss environmental stressors focusing mainly on the various types of air pollutants, their short-term and long-term cardiovascular effects, and providing the epidemiological evidence associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes. Direct and indirect pathophysiological mechanisms are also linked with cardiovascular complications such as thrombosis, fibrinolysis, hypertension, ischemic heart diseases and arrhythmias.

Results: Evidence to date suggests that humans are constantly being exposed to unhealthy levels of environmental toxicants with the potential of serious health conditions. Environmental stressors adversely affect the cardiovascular system and pose an increased risk for cardiovascular diseases for those who reside in highly polluted areas.

Conclusion: People with existing risk factors and those with established cardiovascular disease have increased susceptibility to environmental stressors. The literature reviewed in this article thus support public health policies aimed at reducing pollutant exposure to benefit public health.

Keywords: Particulate matter; cardiovascular mortality; environmental stress; heart; inflammation; oxidative stress.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Direct and indirect mechanisms of PM cardiovascular (CV) dysfunction

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Collaborators, G.B.D.R.F. Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks, 1990–2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. Lancet. 2016;388(10053):1659–1724. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Brauer M, et al. Ambient Air Pollution Exposure Estimation for the Global Burden of Disease 2013. Environ Sci Technol. 2016;50(1):79–88. - PubMed
    1. Du Y, et al. Air particulate matter and cardiovascular disease: the epidemiological, biomedical and clinical evidence. J Thorac Dis. 2016;8(1):E8–E19. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Schulze F, et al. Air Quality Effects on Human Health and Approaches for Its Assessment through Microfluidic Chips. Genes (Basel) 2017;8(10) - PMC - PubMed
    1. Vaduganathan M, et al. Risk of Cardiovascular Hospitalizations from Exposure to Coarse Particulate Matter (PM10) Below the European Union Safety Threshold. Am J Cardiol. 2016;117(8):1231–5. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources