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pubmed:abstractText |
The acute effects and the time course of fine particulate pollution (PM?.?) on atrial fibrillation/flutter (AF) predictors, including P-wave duration, PR interval duration, and P-wave complexity, were investigated in a community-dwelling sample of 106 nonsmokers. Individual-level 24-h beat-to-beat electrocardiogram (ECG) data were visually examined. After identifying and removing artifacts and arrhythmic beats, the 30-min averages of the AF predictors were calculated. A personal PM?.? monitor was used to measure individual-level, real-time PM?.? exposures during the same 24-h period, and corresponding 30-min average PM?.? concentration were calculated. Under a linear mixed-effects modeling framework, distributed lag models were used to estimate regression coefficients (?s) associating PM?.? with AF predictors. Most of the adverse effects on AF predictors occurred within 1.5-2 h after PM?.? exposure. The multivariable adjusted ?s per 10-?g/m³ rise in PM?.? at lag 1 and lag 2 were significantly associated with P-wave complexity. PM?.? exposure was also significantly associated with prolonged PR duration at lag 3 and lag 4. Higher PM?.? was found to be associated with increases in P-wave complexity and PR duration. Maximal effects were observed within 2 h. These findings suggest that PM?.? adversely affects AF predictors; thus, PM?.? may be indicative of greater susceptibility to AF.
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