Higher BPA exposure associated with incident CAD

Melzer D. Circulation. 2012;doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.111.069153.

Issue: May 2012

Results of a nested, case-control analysis showed that there were similar, yet smaller, trends in associations between higher urinary bisphenol A concentration and coronary artery disease compared with results of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Results of the 2003-2004 and 2005-2006 NHANES indicated that higher urinary bisphenol A (BPA) concentrations were cross-sectionally associated with heart disease, independent of traditional risk factors.

For this study, the researchers used data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) to compare urinary BPA concentrations from 758 patients who developed CAD and 861 controls who remained CAD-free. Participants were followed for more than 10 years and were aged 40 to 74 years, free of CAD, stroke or diabetes.

Based on their results, the researchers found that associations between higher BPA exposure and incident CAD showed similar trends to previously reported cross-sectional findings from NHANES.

Urinary BPA concentrations were low; 1.24 ng/mL in controls and 1.35 ng/mL in cases. Increases in urinary BPA concentration were associated with incident CAD in age, sex and urinary creatinine adjusted models (P=.017), according to the study. After adjusting for CAD risk factors, the estimate was similar.

The researchers said additional research is needed to estimate the prospective exposure response curve and potentially identify the underlying mechanisms that caused these results.

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.

This study provides the first evidence that BPA exposure may affect subsequent cardiovascular disease risk. These findings need to be validated in future studies with better BPA exposure measures.

– Joe M. Braun, MSPH, PhD, RN
Research Fellow, Department of Environmental Health
Harvard School of Public Health