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
. 2025 Mar 11:57:101643.
doi: 10.1016/j.ijcha.2025.101643. eCollection 2025 Apr.

Causal relationship between type I diabetes mellitus and atrial fibrillation: A Mendelian randomization study

Yongkai Li  1 , Shasha Liu  2 , Yiming Dong  2 , Jianzhong Yang  3 , Yingping Tian  1
Affiliations

Causal relationship between type I diabetes mellitus and atrial fibrillation: A Mendelian randomization study

Yongkai Li et al. Int J Cardiol Heart Vasc. .

Abstract

Background: Patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus have been at heightened risk for developing atrial fibrillation. We aimed to investigate whether this association is causal using Mendelian randomization.

Methods: Using publicly available genome-wide association studies data, we selected single nucleotide polymorphisms significantly associated with type 1 diabetes mellitus as instrumental variables. We employed inverse variance-weighted, weighted median, MR-Egger regression, simple mode, and weighted mode methods within a two-sample Mendelian randomization framework to assess the causal relationship between type 1 diabetes mellitus and atrial fibrillation. We evaluated the pleiotropy and heterogeneity levels of the included genetic instruments using MR-PRESSO, MR-Egger intercept test, Cochran's Q test, funnel plots, and leave-one-out plots.

Results: Causal impact of type 1 diabetes mellitus on atrial fibrillation: Inverse variance weighted (odds ratio [OR] = 0.996, 95 % confidence interval [CI]: 0.985-1.007, P = 0.498). MR-Egger (OR = 1.000, 95 % CI: 0.985-1.016, P = 0.963). Weighted median (OR = 0.985, 95 % CI: 0.973-0.998, P = 0.022). Simple mode (OR = 1.007, 95 % CI: 0.974-1.040, P = 0.698). Weighted mode (OR = 0.995, 95 % CI: 0.984-1.005, P = 0.298). MR-Egger intercept test (P = 0.437). There was no evidence of pleiotropy among the genetic instrumental variables included in the analysis.

Conclusions: In Mendelian randomization analysis, we did not find evidence of a causal relationship between genetically determined type 1 diabetes mellitus in European ancestry populations and atrial fibrillation.

Keywords: Atrial fibrillation; Genome-wide association; Mendelian randomization; Type 1 diabetes mellitus.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study overview. GWAS, genome-wide association studies; T1DM, type 1 diabetes mellitus; AF; atrial fibrillation; SNPs, single nucleotide polymorphisms; MR, mendelian randomization; IVW, Inverse variance weighted; MR-PRESSO, Mendelian randomization pleiotropy residual sum and outlier; MR-Egger, Mendelian randomization-Egger.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
MR results between T1DM and AF.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Causal relationship between T1DM and AF.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Funnel plot of the two-sample mendelian randomization.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
The leave-one-out plots of the sensitivity analysis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Syed F.Z. Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus. Ann. Intern. Med. 2022;175(3) doi: 10.7326/aitc202203150. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Joglar J.A., Chung M.K., Armbruster A.L., et al. 2023 ACC/AHA/ACCP/HRS Guideline for the Diagnosis and Management of Atrial Fibrillation: A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Joint Committee on Clinical Practice Guidelines. Circulation. 2024;149(1):e1–e156. doi: 10.1161/cir.0000000000001193. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Tsao C.W., Aday A.W., Almarzooq Z.I., et al. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics-2023 Update: A Report From the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2023;147(8):e93–e621. doi: 10.1161/cir.0000000000001123. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Gillis A.M. A Sober Reality? Alcohol, Abstinence, and Atrial Fibrillation. N. Engl. J. Med. 2020;382(1):83–84. doi: 10.1056/NEJMe1914981. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Dahlqvist S., Rosengren A., Gudbjörnsdottir S., et al. Risk of atrial fibrillation in people with type 1 diabetes compared with matched controls from the general population: a prospective case-control study. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2017;5(10):799–807. doi: 10.1016/s2213-8587(17)30262-0. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources