Causal Association Between Alcohol Consumption and Atrial Fibrillation: A Mendelian Randomization Study

2022 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jung-Ho Yang ◽  
Ji-An Jeong ◽  
Sun-Seog Kweon ◽  
Young-Hoon Lee ◽  
Seong-Woo Choi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Atrial Fibrillation ◽  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Mendelian Randomization ◽  
Causal Association

scholarly journals Association of Thyroid Function with Blood Pressure and Cardiovascular Disease: A Mendelian Randomization

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 1306
Author(s):  
Alice Giontella ◽  
Luca A. Lotta ◽  
John D. Overton ◽  
Aris Baras ◽  
Andrea Sartorio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Atrial Fibrillation ◽  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Thyroid Function ◽  
Lower Risk ◽  
Mendelian Randomization ◽  
Association Studies ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Thyroid Peroxidase ◽  
Genome Wide Association Studies ◽  
Causal Association

Thyroid function has a widespread effect on the cardiometabolic system. However, the causal association between either subclinical hyper- or hypothyroidism and the thyroid hormones with blood pressure (BP) and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is not clear. We aim to investigate this in a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free tetraiodothyronine (FT4), hyper- and hypothyroidism, and anti-thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPOAb), from genome-wide association studies (GWAS), were selected as MR instrumental variables. SNPs–outcome (BP, CVD) associations were evaluated in a large-scale cohort, the Malmö Diet and Cancer Study (n = 29,298). Causal estimates were computed by inverse-variance weighted (IVW), weighted median, and MR-Egger approaches. Genetically increased levels of TSH were associated with decreased systolic BP and with a lower risk of atrial fibrillation. Hyperthyroidism and TPOAb were associated with a lower risk of atrial fibrillation. Our data support a causal association between genetically decreased levels of TSH and both atrial fibrillation and systolic BP. The lack of significance after Bonferroni correction and the sensitivity analyses suggesting pleiotropy, should prompt us to be cautious in their interpretation. Nevertheless, these findings offer mechanistic insight into the etiology of CVD. Further work into the genes involved in thyroid functions and their relation to cardiovascular outcomes may highlight pathways for targeted intervention.

scholarly journals Causal Association Between Birth Weight and Atrial Fibrillation: Evidence from a Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Analysis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Songzan Chen ◽  
Fangkun Yan ◽  
Tian Xu ◽  
Yao Wang ◽  
Kaijie Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Atrial Fibrillation ◽  
Birth Weight ◽  
Mendelian Randomization ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
P Value ◽  
Causal Association ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
A Genome ◽  
Mr Study

Abstract Background Although several observational studies have shown an association between birth weight (BW) and atrial fibrillation (AF), controversy remains. In this study, we aimed to explore the role of elevated BW on the etiology of AF. Methods A two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study was designed to infer the causality. The genetic data on the associations of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with BW and AF were separately obtained from two large-scale genome-wide association study with up to 321,223 and 1,030,836 individuals respectively. SNPs were identified at a genome-wide significant level (p-value < 5 × 10− 8). The inverse variance-weighted (IVW) with fixed effects method was performed to obtain causal estimates as our primary analysis. MR-Egger regression was conducted to assess the pleiotropy and sensitivity analyses with various statistical methods were applied to evaluate the robustness of the results. Results In total, 122 SNPs were identified as the genetic instrumental variables. MR analysis revealed a causal effect of elevated BW on AF (OR = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.13–1.29, p-value = 2.39 × 10− 8). The MR-Egger regression suggested no evidence of directional pleiotropy (intercept = 0.00, p-value = 0.62). All the results in sensitivity analyses were consistent with the primary result, which confirmed the causal association between BW and AF. Conclusions The findings from the two-sample MR study indicate a causal effect of elevated BW on AF. This suggests a convenient and effective method to ease the burden of AF by reducing the number of newborns with elevated BW.

scholarly journals Association between alcohol consumption and Alzheimer’s disease: A Mendelian randomization Study

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shea J. Andrews ◽  
Alison Goate ◽  
Kaarin J. Anstey
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Alcohol Dependence ◽  
Alcohol Intake ◽  
Mendelian Randomization ◽  
Age Of Onset ◽  
Moderate Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Causal Association ◽  
Study Designs

AbstractINTRODUCTIONObservational studies have suggested that light-moderate alcohol consumptions decreases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, but it is unclear if this association is causal.METHODSTwo-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was used to examine whether alcohol consumption, alcohol dependence or Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) scores were causally associated with the risk of Late Onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD) or Alzheimer’s disease age of onset survival (AAOS). Additionally, γ-glutamyltransferase levels were included as a positive control.RESULTSThere was no evidence of a causal association between alcohol consumption, alcohol dependence or AUDIT and LOAD. Alcohol consumption was associated with an earlier AAOS and increased γ-glutamyltransferase blood concentrations. Alcohol dependence was associated with a delayed AAOS.DISCUSSIONMR found robust evidence of a causal association between alcohol consumption and an earlier AAOS, but not alcohol intake and LOAD risk. The protective effect of alcohol dependence is potentially due to survivor bias.Research in ContextSystematic ReviewThe authors reviewed the literature using online databases (e.g. PubMed). Previous research links light-moderate alcohol consumption to a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), however, prior studies based on observational study designs may be biased due to unmeasured confounders influencing both alcohol consumption and AD risk.InterpretationWe used a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) approach to evaluated the causal relationship between alcohol intake and AD. MR uses genetic variants as proxies for environmental exposures to provide an estimate of the causal association between an intermediate exposure and a disease outcome. MR found evidence of a causal association between alcohol consumption and an earlier AD age of onset, suggesting that light-moderate alcohol consumption does not reduce risk of Alzheimer’s disease.Future DirectionsFuture studies should use alterative study designs and account for additional confounders when evaluating the causal relationship between alcohol consumption and AD.HighlightsWe evaluated causal relationships between alcohol intake and Alzheimer’s diseaseAlcohol consumption is causally associated with an earlier Alzheimer’s age of onsetNo evidence of causal assocations between alcohol intake and Alzheimer’s risk

scholarly journals Appraising the Causal Association of Plasma Homocysteine Levels With Atrial Fibrillation Risk: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Songzan Chen ◽  
Fangkun Yang ◽  
Tian Xu ◽  
Yao Wang ◽  
Kaijie Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Atrial Fibrillation ◽  
Genome Wide Association Study ◽  
Mendelian Randomization ◽  
Plasma Homocysteine ◽  
Fixed Effect ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Causal Association ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
A Genome ◽  
Increased Risk

BackgroundAlthough several observational studies have suggested an association of elevated plasma homocysteine (Hcy) levels with increased risk of atrial fibrillation (AF), it remains unclear whether this association reflects causality. In this study, we aimed to investigate the causal association of plasma Hcy levels with AF risk.MethodsA two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study was designed to investigate the causal association of Hcy with AF. Summary data on association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with Hcy were extracted from the hitherto largest genome-wide association study (GWAS) with up to 44,147 individuals, and statistics data on association of SNPs with AF were obtained from another recently published GWAS with up to 1,030,836 individuals. SNPs were selected at a genome-wide significance threshold (p &lt; 5 × 10–8). Fixed-effect inverse variance weighting (IVW) method was used to calculate the causal estimate. Other statistical methods and leave-one-out analysis were applied in the follow-up sensitivity analyses. MR-Egger intercept test was conducted to detect the potential directional pleiotropy.ResultsIn total, nine SNPs were identified as valid instrumental variables in our two-sample MR analysis. Fixed-effect IVW analysis indicated no evidence of causal association of genetically predicted Hcy with AF. The odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of AF per standard deviation (SD) increase in Hcy were 1.077 (0.993, 1.168), p = 0.075. Similar results were observed in the sensitivity analyses. MR-Egger intercept test suggested no evidence of potential horizonal pleiotropy.ConclusionsThis two-sample MR analysis found no evidence to support causal association of Hcy with AF.

scholarly journals Cigarette Smoking, Coffee Consumption, Alcohol Intake, and Risk of Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis: A Mendelian Randomization Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea N Georgiou ◽  
Georgios Ntritsos ◽  
Nikos Papadimitriou ◽  
Niki Dimou ◽  
Evangelos Evangelou
Keyword(s):  
Ulcerative Colitis ◽  
Sensitivity Analysis ◽  
Crohn’S Disease ◽  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Crohn's Disease ◽  
Cigarette Smoking ◽  
Mendelian Randomization ◽  
Coffee Consumption ◽  
Smoking Initiation ◽  
Causal Association

Abstract Background Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are widely associated with smoking in epidemiological studies, whereas there are conflicting results for the association between CD and UC for both coffee and alcohol consumption. Herein, we aimed to investigate whether cigarette smoking and alcohol and coffee consumption are causally associated with either CD or UC. Methods We utilized 540 genome-wide significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms for 3 potentially addictive substances—nicotine, alcohol, and caffeine—to assess the association of smoking, coffee, and alcohol consumption with CD and UC (12,194 CD cases, 12,366 UC cases, and 25,042 controls of European ancestry), using Mendelian randomization analysis. Mendelian randomization estimates were used to evaluate the effect of the exposure factors on CD and UC risk. Sensitivity analysis was employed to test for any directional pleiotropy. Results We found evidence for a positive causal association between the age of smoking initiation and UC risk and between alcohol consumption and CD risk, which disappeared after sensitivity analysis for both associations (P &gt; 0.05). No evidence for a causal association between cigarettes per day, smoking initiation, smoking cessation, and coffee consumption variables and UC or CD was found. Conclusions We found no clear evidence that either genetically predicted smoking, coffee consumption, or alcohol consumption are causally associated with the risk for CD or UC, although our findings indicate a potential positive association between the age of smoking and UC and between alcohol consumption and CD.

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