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NPJ Primary Care Respiratory Medicine

Lower lung function linked to an irregular heart rhythm

Two lung-test patterns were linked to odds of an irregular heart rhythm 2.12 and 2.38 times as high as in people without each pattern.

Paper by Xiu Shi, Yifei Chen, Bing Su, +2 more authorsHanxiang Nie · Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University
Figure 1. Participant flow diagram for the primary and sensitivity analyses.
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Figure 1. Participant flow diagram for the primary and sensitivity analyses.Participant flow diagram for the primary and sensitivity analyses.Shi et al.

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Populations
Studied:
Cohort study of 2,219 people (Multicenter)

Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

Paper
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The 2,219 adults in this cohort study averaged 62.4 years of age; 43.6% were male. None had atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm, or airflow limitation at baseline. Researchers analyzed breathing tests and tracked new atrial fibrillation through June 2006.

They examined two overlapping patterns: reduced air expelled in the first second of a forceful breath out, and reduced total air expelled, both with a preserved ratio between those measurements. The odds of atrial fibrillation were 2.12 times as high for the first pattern and 2.38 times as high for the second, after accounting for age, smoking and other health factors. Overall, 247 participants (11.1%) developed the condition. An exploratory analysis separating people into four nonoverlapping groups found the clearest association in those with both reductions. Neither pattern alone had a clear association after adjustment.

Why it matters

Breathing tests may offer a way to study connections between lung health and heart-rhythm problems in later life.

Caveats

The authors note that uncertain timing left open whether developing heart problems had already affected lung function. The predominantly White, older cohort excluded people with airflow limitation, limiting application to other populations.

From the paper

Participants

The primary analytic cohort included 2219 participants (mean age, 62.4 years; 43.6% male), of whom 247 (11.1%) developed incident AF.

Results, Baseline characteristics

Result

In the unadjusted model (Model 1), PRISm was associated with higher odds of incident AF (OR = 2.89, 95% CI 1.98–4.23, P < 0.001).

Results, Association between spirometry patterns and incident atrial fibrillation

Limitation

First, the SHHS dataset does not provide exact dates of AF onset, precluding time-to-event analyses such as Cox proportional hazards regression or sensitivity analyses that exclude early incident cases.

Study strengths and limitations

Quoted word for word from the full text on nature.com.

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