Plasma Free Fatty Acids and Risk of Atrial Fibrillation (From the Cardiovascular Health Study)

Abstract

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a highly prevalent cardiac arrhythmia in clinical practice, affecting approximately 2.3 million people in the USA and 4.5 million people in the European Union. It is unclear whether plasma free fatty acids (FFA) influence the risk of AF among older adults. The aim of this study was to prospectively examine the association between plasma FFA and incident AF in a prospective cohort of 4,175 men and women aged ≥65 years from the Cardiovascular Health Study. Plasma concentrations of FFA were measured in duplicate during the 1992-93 examination. Incident AF was ascertained based on study EKG and hospitalization records during follow up. We used Cox regression to estimate relative risks of AF. The average age at baseline was 74.6 ± 5.1 years. During a mean follow up of 10.0 years, 1,041 new cases of AF occurred. Crude incidence rates of AF were 23.7, 23.3, 23.9, and 29.7 cases/1,000 person-years across consecutive quartiles of plasma FFA. There was a positive association between plasma FFA and the risk of AF. Multivariable adjusted hazard ratios (95% CI) for incident AF were 1.00 (ref), 1.02 (0.85-1.21), 1.05 (0.88-1.26), and 1.29 (1.08-1.55) from lowest to the highest quartile of FFA, respectively. In a secondary analysis restricted to the first five years of follow up, this association persisted. In conclusion, our data show an elevated risk of AF with higher plasma FFA among community dwelling older adults.