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Shorter telomeres associated with greater risk for MI
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Shorter telomere length confers greater risk for MI, researchers reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
The researchers analyzed the relationship between telomere length and MI in the INTERHEART study, a multiethnic MI case-control study. Participants (n = 3,972) were enrolled within 24 hours of presenting with acute MI. They were matched by age within 5 years and sex to a control group (n = 4,321) that had no history of CVD. Leukocyte telomere length was measured using a qualitative polymerase chain reaction method.
Data showed that participants had shorter telomeres compared with the control group (P = 3.37 x 10–21) and that each unit of decrease in telomere length was associated with an increased risk for MI (OR = 2.24; 95% CI, 1.88-2.67).
The researchers stratified participants into tertiles by telomere length and found the population-attributable risk for shortest tertile vs. longest two tertiles was 14% (95% CI, 10.6-17.3). The linear relationship between telomere length and MI suggested that telomere length has a graded effect. In addition, the relationship was consistent across ethnic groups (P for heterogeneity = .17), the researchers found.
The researchers also found that adding telomere length to CVD risk factors improved discrimination of the regression model (integrated discrimination improvement = 0.01; P = 1 x 10–5).
“An important finding was the consistency of the association between short [telomere length] and MI across various ethnic groups,” the researchers wrote. “Our study supports the use of [telomere length] as an independent marker of MI.” – by Tracey Romero
Disclosure: The INTERHEART study was funded by AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, King Pharma, Knoll Pharmaceuticals/Abbott, Novartis and Sanofi. Please see full study for list of the researchers’ relevant financial disclosures.
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