Department of General and Interventional Cardiology, University Heart Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20251 Hamburg, Germany.
Deutsches Zentrum für Herz-Kreislauf-Forschung e.V. (DZHK), Partner Site Munich, 80336 Munich, Germany.
Biomolecules. 2018 Aug 30;8(3):86. doi: 10.3390/biom8030086.
Homoarginine has come into the focus of interest as a biomarker for cardiovascular disease. Atrial fibrillation (AF) causes a substantial increase in morbidity and mortality. Whether circulating homoarginine is associated with occurrence or persistence of AF and may serve as a new predictive biomarker remains unknown. We measured plasma levels of homoarginine in the population-based Gutenberg health study (3761 patients included, of them 51.7% males), mean age 55.6 ± 10.9 years-old. Associations between homoarginine and intermediate electrocardiographic and echocardiographic phenotypes and manifest AF were examined. Patients with AF (124 patients, of them 73.4% males) had a mean age 64.8 ± 8.6 years-old compared to a mean age of 55.3 ± 10.9 in the population without AF (-value < 0.001) and showed a less beneficial risk factor profile. The median homoarginine levels in individuals with and without AF were 1.9 μmol/L (interquartile range (IQR) 1.5⁻2.5) and 2.0 μmol/L (IQR 1.5⁻2.5), respectively, = 0.56. In multivariable-adjusted regression analyses homoarginine was not statistically significantly related to electrocardiographic variables. Among echocardiographic variables beta per standard deviation increase was -0.12 (95% confidence interval (CI) -0.23⁻(-0.02); = 0.024) for left atrial area and -0.01 (95% CI -0.02⁻(-0.003); = 0.013) for E/A ratio. The odds ratio between homoarginine and AF was 0.91 (95% CI 0.70⁻1.16; = 0.45). In our large, population-based cross-sectional study, we did not find statistically significant correlations between lower homoarginine levels and occurrence or persistence of AF or most standard electrocardiographic phenotypes, but some moderate inverse associations with echocardiographic left atrial size and E/A. Homoarginine may not represent a strong biomarker to identify individuals at increased risk for AF. Further investigations will be needed to elucidate the role of homoarginine and cardiac function.
高精氨酸作为心血管疾病的生物标志物引起了关注。心房颤动 (AF) 会显著增加发病率和死亡率。循环高精氨酸是否与 AF 的发生或持续相关，是否可以作为新的预测生物标志物尚不清楚。我们在基于人群的哥廷根健康研究中测量了高精氨酸的血浆水平（包括 3761 名患者，其中 51.7%为男性），平均年龄为 55.6 ± 10.9 岁。检查了高精氨酸与中间心电图和超声心动图表型以及显性 AF 之间的关联。AF 患者（124 例，其中 73.4%为男性）的平均年龄为 64.8 ± 8.6 岁，而无 AF 人群的平均年龄为 55.3 ± 10.9 岁（-值 < 0.001），且表现出更有益的危险因素特征。有和无 AF 的个体的高精氨酸中位数水平分别为 1.9 μmol/L（四分位距 (IQR) 1.5⁻2.5）和 2.0 μmol/L（IQR 1.5⁻2.5）， = 0.56。在多变量调整的回归分析中，高精氨酸与心电图变量没有统计学上的显著关系。在超声心动图变量中，每标准偏差增加β为-0.12（95%置信区间 (CI) -0.23⁻(-0.02)； = 0.024），左心房面积为-0.01（95% CI -0.02⁻(-0.003)； = 0.013），E/A 比值。高精氨酸与 AF 之间的比值比为 0.91（95% CI 0.70⁻1.16； = 0.45）。在我们的大型基于人群的横断面研究中，我们没有发现低高精氨酸水平与 AF 的发生或持续之间存在统计学上的显著相关性，也没有发现与大多数标准心电图表型之间存在统计学上的显著相关性，但与超声心动图左心房大小和 E/A 呈中度负相关。高精氨酸可能不是识别 AF 风险增加个体的有力生物标志物。需要进一步研究来阐明高精氨酸和心脏功能的作用。
