High blood pressure can directly lead to atrial fibrillation (AFib), according to new findings published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. The study’s authors noted that this is yet another reason to monitor blood pressure levels over time.
The analysis included information from more than 60,000 patients with AFib and more than 970,000 without AFib. All study participants were of European ancestry. Data came from the massive Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS).
Exploring the GWAS data, the research team identified nearly 900 genetic variants associated with blood pressure, working to determine which variants seem to be specifically associated with AFib. Overall, the authors found, elevated blood pressure was associated with a heightened risk of AFib. When a patient’s systolic blood pressure rises just 1 mm HG, for instance, it was associated with a 1.8% relative increase of developing AFib. The same increase in a patient’s diastolic blood pressure is associated with a 2.6% relative increase.
“Our findings confirm the hypothesis that AFib is preventable,” lead author Georgios Georgiopoulos, MD, MSc, PhD, of King’s College London in the U.K. and Kapodistrian University in Athens, Greece, said in a prepared statement. “This indicates that strict blood pressure control could be an effective strategy to stop AFib and its complications, which include stroke, heart failure, dementia, and depression.”
Coronary artery disease and obesity, Georgiopoulos said in the same statement, don’t appear to play a significant role in determining a person’s AFib risk. Also, he noted that these findings could also be significant when it comes to the future of healthcare policies throughout the world.
“Establishing that elevated blood pressure causes AFib provides further impetus for public health strategies aimed at improving blood pressure control in the general population and for individual efforts to keep levels in check,” Georgiopoulos said.
The full study can be read here.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.