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. 2023 Apr:258:157-167.
doi: 10.1016/j.ahj.2023.01.010. Epub 2023 Jan 13.

Evaluation of the association between circulating IL-1β and other inflammatory cytokines and incident atrial fibrillation in a cohort of postmenopausal women

Sofia E Gomez  1 , Justin Parizo  2 , Simon Ermakov  3 , Joseph Larson  4 , Robert Wallace  5 , Themistocles Assimes  2 , Mark Hlatky  6 , Marcia Stefanick  7 , Marco V Perez  8
Affiliations

Evaluation of the association between circulating IL-1β and other inflammatory cytokines and incident atrial fibrillation in a cohort of postmenopausal women

Sofia E Gomez et al. Am Heart J. 2023 Apr.

Abstract

Background: Inflammatory cytokines play a role in atrial fibrillation (AF). Interleukin (IL)-1β, which is targeted in the treatment of ischemic heart disease, has not been well-studied in relation to AF.

Methods: Postmenopausal women from the Women's Health Initiative were included. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to evaluate the association between log-transformed baseline cytokine levels and future AF incidence. Models were adjusted for body mass index, age, race, education, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, current smoking, and history of coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, or peripheral artery disease.

Results: Of 16,729 women, 3,943 developed AF over an average of 8.5 years. Racial and ethnic groups included White (77.4%), Black/African-American (16.1%), Asian (2.7%), American Indian/Alaska Native (1.0%), and Hispanic (5.5%). Baseline IL-1β log continuous levels were not significantly associated with incident AF (HR 0.86 per 1 log [pg/mL] increase, P= .24), similar to those of other inflammatory cytokines, IL-7, IL-8, IL-10, IGF-1, and TNF-α. There were significant associations between C-reactive protein (CRP) and IL-6 with incident AF.

Conclusions: In this large cohort of postmenopausal women, there was no significant association between IL-1β and incident AF, although downstream effectors, CRP and IL-6, were associated with incident AF.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest None reported.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Box Plots of Age and study adjusted, Standardized Biomarker Values1 by Atrial Fibrillation Status
1CRP has an additional 49 outliers (34 no AF, 15 AF) between 1.5 and 3 standard deviations
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Graphs of Age-Adjusted Splines of Standardized, Log-Transformed Biomarkers by Standard Deviation
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. Weighted1 Events, Annualized Rates, and Interaction between BMI and inflammatory log cytokine level
1Events, annualized rates and models are weighted to the WHI OS using IPW weighting
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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