@article {7452, title = {Dairy consumption, systolic blood pressure, and risk of hypertension: Mendelian randomization study.}, journal = {BMJ}, volume = {356}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 03 16}, pages = {j1000}, abstract = {

Objective~To examine whether previous observed inverse associations of dairy intake with systolic blood pressure and risk of hypertension were causal.Design~Mendelian randomization study using the single nucleotide polymorphism rs4988235 related to lactase persistence as an instrumental variable.Setting~CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology) Consortium.Participants~Data from 22 studies with 171 213 participants, and an additional 10 published prospective studies with 26 119 participants included in the observational analysis.Main outcome measures~The instrumental variable estimation was conducted using the ratio of coefficients approach. Using meta-analysis, an additional eight published randomized clinical trials on the association of dairy consumption with systolic blood pressure were summarized.Results~Compared with the CC genotype (CC is associated with complete lactase deficiency), the CT/TT genotype (TT is associated with lactose persistence, and CT is associated with certain lactase deficiency) of LCT-13910 (lactase persistence gene) rs4988235 was associated with higher dairy consumption (0.23 (about 55 g/day), 95\% confidence interval 0.17 to 0.29) serving/day; P<0.001) and was not associated with systolic blood pressure (0.31, 95\% confidence interval -0.05 to 0.68 mm Hg; P=0.09) or risk of hypertension (odds ratio 1.01, 95\% confidence interval 0.97 to 1.05; P=0.27). Using LCT-13910 rs4988235 as the instrumental variable, genetically determined dairy consumption was not associated with systolic blood pressure (β=1.35, 95\% confidence interval -0.28 to 2.97 mm Hg for each serving/day) or risk of hypertension (odds ratio 1.04, 0.88 to 1.24). Moreover, meta-analysis of the published clinical trials showed that higher dairy intake has no significant effect on change in systolic blood pressure for interventions over one month to 12 months (intervention compared with control groups: β=-0.21, 95\% confidence interval -0.98 to 0.57 mm Hg). In observational analysis, each serving/day increase in dairy consumption was associated with -0.11 (95\% confidence interval -0.20 to -0.02 mm Hg; P=0.02) lower systolic blood pressure but not risk of hypertension (odds ratio 0.98, 0.97 to 1.00; P=0.11).Conclusion~The weak inverse association between dairy intake and systolic blood pressure in observational studies was not supported by a comprehensive instrumental variable analysis and systematic review of existing clinical trials.

}, keywords = {Blood Pressure, Dairy Products, Feeding Behavior, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Humans, Hypertension, Lactase, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Observational Studies as Topic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic}, issn = {1756-1833}, doi = {10.1136/bmj.j1000}, author = {Ding, Ming and Huang, Tao and Bergholdt, Helle Km and Nordestgaard, B{\o}rge G and Ellervik, Christina and Qi, Lu} } @article {7973, title = {Assessment of the Relationship Between Genetic Determinants of Thyroid Function and Atrial Fibrillation: A Mendelian Randomization Study.}, journal = {JAMA Cardiol}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Jan 23}, abstract = {

Importance: Increased free thyroxine (FT4) and decreased thyrotropin are associated with increased risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) in observational studies, but direct involvement is unclear.

Objective: To evaluate the potential direct involvement of thyroid traits on AF.

Design, Setting, and Participants: Study-level mendelian randomization (MR) included 11 studies, and summary-level MR included 55 114 AF cases and 482 295 referents, all of European ancestry.

Exposures: Genomewide significant variants were used as instruments for standardized FT4 and thyrotropin levels within the reference range, standardized triiodothyronine (FT3):FT4 ratio, hypothyroidism, standardized thyroid peroxidase antibody levels, and hyperthyroidism. Mendelian randomization used genetic risk scores in study-level analysis or individual single-nucleotide polymorphisms in 2-sample MR for the summary-level data.

Main Outcomes and Measures: Prevalent and incident AF.

Results: The study-level analysis included 7679 individuals with AF and 49 233 referents (mean age [standard error], 62 [3] years; 15 859 men [29.7\%]). In study-level random-effects meta-analysis, the pooled hazard ratio of FT4 levels (nanograms per deciliter) for incident AF was 1.55 (95\% CI, 1.09-2.20; P = .02; I2 = 76\%) and the pooled odds ratio (OR) for prevalent AF was 2.80 (95\% CI, 1.41-5.54; P = .003; I2 = 64\%) in multivariable-adjusted analyses. The FT4 genetic risk score was associated with an increase in FT4 by 0.082 SD (standard error, 0.007; P < .001) but not with incident AF (risk ratio, 0.84; 95\% CI, 0.62-1.14; P = .27) or prevalent AF (OR, 1.32; 95\% CI, 0.64-2.73; P = .46). Similarly, in summary-level inverse-variance weighted random-effects MR, gene-based FT4 within the reference range was not associated with AF (OR, 1.01; 95\% CI, 0.89-1.14; P = .88). However, gene-based increased FT3:FT4 ratio, increased thyrotropin within the reference range, and hypothyroidism were associated with AF with inverse-variance weighted random-effects OR of 1.33 (95\% CI, 1.08-1.63; P = .006), 0.88 (95\% CI, 0.84-0.92; P < .001), and 0.94 (95\% CI, 0.90-0.99; P = .009), respectively, and robust to tests of horizontal pleiotropy. However, the subset of hypothyroidism single-nucleotide polymorphisms involved in autoimmunity and thyroid peroxidase antibodies levels were not associated with AF. Gene-based hyperthyroidism was associated with AF with MR-Egger OR of 1.31 (95\% CI, 1.05-1.63; P = .02) with evidence of horizontal pleiotropy (P = .045).

Conclusions and Relevance: Genetically increased FT3:FT4 ratio and hyperthyroidism, but not FT4 within the reference range, were associated with increased AF, and increased thyrotropin within the reference range and hypothyroidism were associated with decreased AF, supporting a pathway involving the pituitary-thyroid-cardiac axis.

}, issn = {2380-6591}, doi = {10.1001/jamacardio.2018.4635}, author = {Ellervik, Christina and Roselli, Carolina and Christophersen, Ingrid E and Alonso, Alvaro and Pietzner, Maik and Sitlani, Collen M and Trompet, Stella and Arking, Dan E and Geelhoed, Bastiaan and Guo, Xiuqing and Kleber, Marcus E and Lin, Henry J and Lin, Honghuang and Macfarlane, Peter and Selvin, Elizabeth and Shaffer, Christian and Smith, Albert V and Verweij, Niek and Weiss, Stefan and Cappola, Anne R and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Heckbert, Susan and Mooijaart, Simon and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Psaty, Bruce M and Ridker, Paul M and Roden, Dan and Stott, David J and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Benjamin, Emelia J and Delgado, Graciela and Ellinor, Patrick and Homuth, Georg and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Jukema, Johan W and Lubitz, Steven A and Mora, Samia and Rienstra, Michiel and Rotter, Jerome I and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Taylor, Kent D and van der Harst, Pim and Albert, Christine M and Chasman, Daniel I} } @article {8410, title = {Mendelian randomization analysis does not support causal associations of birth weight with hypertension risk and blood pressure in adulthood.}, journal = {Eur J Epidemiol}, volume = {35}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Jul}, pages = {685-697}, abstract = {

Epidemiology studies suggested that low birthweight was associated with a higher risk of hypertension in later life. However, little is known about the causality of such associations. In our study, we evaluated the causal association of low birthweight with adulthood hypertension following a standard analytic protocol using the study-level data of 183,433 participants from 60 studies (CHARGE-BIG consortium), as well as that with blood pressure using publicly available summary-level genome-wide association data from EGG consortium of 153,781 participants, ICBP consortium and UK Biobank cohort together of 757,601 participants. We used seven SNPs as the instrumental variable in the study-level analysis and 47 SNPs in the summary-level analysis. In the study-level analyses, decreased birthweight was associated with a higher risk of hypertension in adults (the odds ratio per 1 standard deviation (SD) lower birthweight, 1.22; 95\% CI 1.16 to 1.28), while no association was found between genetically instrumented birthweight and hypertension risk (instrumental odds ratio for causal effect per 1 SD lower birthweight, 0.97; 95\% CI 0.68 to 1.41). Such results were consistent with that from the summary-level analyses, where the genetically determined low birthweight was not associated with blood pressure measurements either. One SD lower genetically determined birthweight was not associated with systolic blood pressure (β = - 0.76, 95\% CI - 2.45 to 1.08~mmHg), 0.06~mmHg lower diastolic blood pressure (β = - 0.06, 95\% CI - 0.93 to 0.87~mmHg), or pulse pressure (β = - 0.65, 95\% CI - 1.38 to 0.69~mmHg, all p > 0.05). Our findings suggest that the inverse association of birthweight with hypertension risk from observational studies was not supported by large Mendelian randomization analyses.

}, issn = {1573-7284}, doi = {10.1007/s10654-020-00638-z}, author = {Zheng, Yan and Huang, Tao and Wang, Tiange and Mei, Zhendong and Sun, Zhonghan and Zhang, Tao and Ellervik, Christina and Chai, Jin-Fang and Sim, Xueling and van Dam, Rob M and Tai, E-Shyong and Koh, Woon-Puay and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and Saw, Seang-Mei and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Wong, Tien Yin and Gupta, Preeti and Rossing, Peter and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Vinding, Rebecca K and Bisgaard, Hans and B{\o}nnelykke, Klaus and Wang, Yujie and Graff, Mariaelisa and Voortman, Trudy and van Rooij, Frank J A and Hofman, Albert and van Heemst, Diana and Noordam, Raymond and Estampador, Angela C and Varga, Tibor V and Enzenbach, Cornelia and Scholz, Markus and Thiery, Joachim and Burkhardt, Ralph and Orho-Melander, Marju and Schulz, Christina-Alexandra and Ericson, Ulrika and Sonestedt, Emily and Kubo, Michiaki and Akiyama, Masato and Zhou, Ang and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Hansen, Torben and Kleber, Marcus E and Delgado, Graciela and McCarthy, Mark and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Felix, Janine F and Jaddoe, Vincent W V and Wu, Ying and Mohlke, Karen L and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Wang, Carol A and Pennell, Craig E and Schunkert, Heribert and Kessler, Thorsten and Zeng, Lingyao and Willenborg, Christina and Peters, Annette and Lieb, Wolfgang and Grote, Veit and Rzehak, Peter and Koletzko, Berthold and Erdmann, Jeanette and Munz, Matthias and Wu, Tangchun and He, Meian and Yu, Caizheng and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Froguel, Philippe and Corella, Dolores and Moreno, Luis A and Lai, Chao-Qiang and Pitk{\"a}nen, Niina and Boreham, Colin A and Ridker, Paul M and Rosendaal, Frits R and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Power, Chris and Paternoster, Lavinia and S{\o}rensen, Thorkild I A and Tj{\o}nneland, Anne and Overvad, Kim and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Lee, Nanette R and Raitakari, Olli T and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Viikari, Jorma and Langhendries, Jean-Paul and Escribano, Joaquin and Verduci, Elvira and Dedoussis, George and K{\"o}nig, Inke and Balkau, Beverley and Coltell, Oscar and Dallongeville, Jean and Meirhaeghe, Aline and Amouyel, Philippe and Gottrand, Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric and Pahkala, Katja and Niinikoski, Harri and Hypp{\"o}nen, Elina and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Mackey, David A and Gruszfeld, Dariusz and Tucker, Katherine L and Fumeron, Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric and Estruch, Ramon and Ordovas, Jose M and Arnett, Donna K and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Psaty, Bruce M and North, Kari E and Chasman, Daniel I and Qi, Lu} } @article {9322, title = {Genetic architecture of spatial electrical biomarkers for cardiac arrhythmia and relationship with cardiovascular disease.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {14}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Mar 14}, pages = {1411}, abstract = {

The 3-dimensional spatial and 2-dimensional frontal QRS-T angles are measures derived from the vectorcardiogram. They are independent risk predictors for arrhythmia, but the underlying biology is unknown. Using multi-ancestry genome-wide association studies we identify 61 (58 previously unreported) loci for the spatial QRS-T angle (N = 118,780) and 11 for the frontal QRS-T angle (N = 159,715). Seven out of the 61 spatial QRS-T angle loci have not been reported for other electrocardiographic measures. Enrichments are observed in pathways related to cardiac and vascular development, muscle contraction, and hypertrophy. Pairwise genome-wide association studies with classical ECG traits identify shared genetic influences with PR interval and QRS duration.~Phenome-wide scanning indicate associations with atrial fibrillation, atrioventricular block and arterial embolism~and~genetically determined QRS-T angle measures are associated with fascicular and bundle branch block (and also atrioventricular block for the frontal QRS-T angle). We identify potential biology involved in the QRS-T angle~and~their genetic relationships with cardiovascular traits and diseases, may inform future research and risk prediction.

}, keywords = {Arrhythmias, Cardiac, Atrioventricular Block, Biomarkers, Cardiovascular Diseases, Electrocardiography, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Risk Factors}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-023-36997-w}, author = {Young, William J and Haessler, Jeffrey and Benjamins, Jan-Walter and Repetto, Linda and Yao, Jie and Isaacs, Aaron and Harper, Andrew R and Ramirez, Julia and Garnier, Sophie and Van Duijvenboden, Stefan and Baldassari, Antoine R and Concas, Maria Pina and Duong, ThuyVy and Foco, Luisa and Isaksen, Jonas L and Mei, Hao and Noordam, Raymond and Nursyifa, Casia and Richmond, Anne and Santolalla, Meddly L and Sitlani, Colleen M and Soroush, Negin and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and Trompet, Stella and Aeschbacher, Stefanie and Ahmadizar, Fariba and Alonso, Alvaro and Brody, Jennifer A and Campbell, Archie and Correa, Adolfo and Darbar, Dawood and De Luca, Antonio and Deleuze, Jean-Francois and Ellervik, Christina and Fuchsberger, Christian and Goel, Anuj and Grace, Christopher and Guo, Xiuqing and Hansen, Torben and Heckbert, Susan R and Jackson, Rebecca D and Kors, Jan A and Lima-Costa, Maria Fernanda and Linneberg, Allan and Macfarlane, Peter W and Morrison, Alanna C and Navarro, Pau and Porteous, David J and Pramstaller, Peter P and Reiner, Alexander P and Risch, Lorenz and Schotten, Ulrich and Shen, Xia and Sinagra, Gianfranco and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Stoll, Monika and Tarazona-Santos, Eduardo and Tinker, Andrew and Trajanoska, Katerina and Villard, Eric and Warren, Helen R and Whitsel, Eric A and Wiggins, Kerri L and Arking, Dan E and Avery, Christy L and Conen, David and Girotto, Giorgia and Grarup, Niels and Hayward, Caroline and Jukema, J Wouter and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Olesen, Morten Salling and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Psaty, Bruce M and Pattaro, Cristian and Ribeiro, Antonio Luiz P and Rotter, Jerome I and Stricker, Bruno H and van der Harst, Pim and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Verweij, Niek and Wilson, James G and Orini, Michele and Charron, Philippe and Watkins, Hugh and Kooperberg, Charles and Lin, Henry J and Wilson, James F and Kanters, J{\o}rgen K and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Mifsud, Borbala and Lambiase, Pier D and Tereshchenko, Larisa G and Munroe, Patricia B} }