air pollution and a fib?

[Guest guest]

I tried to post this last night but it didn't go through for some

reason. See article that follows. My question is, were you living

for some period of time in an area with poor air quality when your a

fib first started? I was - the central valley of California - one of

the most polluted areas in California and the US.

Increased Risk of Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation Episodes Associated

with Acute Increases in Ambient Air Pollution

Q. Rich,1,2 Murray A. Mittleman,2,3 Mark S. Link,4

Schwartz,1,2,5 Heike Luttmann-Gibson,1 J. Catalano,6,7 E.

Speizer,1,5 Diane R. Gold,1,5 and W. Dockery1,2,5

1Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health,

Boston, Massachusetts, USA; 2Department of Epidemiology, Harvard

School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; 3Beth Israel

Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston,

Massachusetts, USA; 4New England Medical Center, Tufts University,

Boston, Massachusetts, USA; 5Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women's

Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA;

6Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston,

Massachusetts, USA; 7Department of Biostatistical Science, Dana-Farber

Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

* Introduction

* Materials and Methods

* Results

* Discussion

Abstract

Objectives: We reported previously that 24-hr moving average ambient

air pollution concentrations were positively associated with

ventricular arrhythmias detected by implantable cardioverter

defibrillators (ICDs). ICDs also detect paroxysmal atrial fibrillation

episodes (PAF) that result in rapid ventricular rates. In this same

cohort of ICD patients, we assessed the association between ambient

air pollution and episodes of PAF.

Design: We performed a case-crossover study.

Participants: Patients who lived in the Boston, Massachusetts,

metropolitan area and who had ICDs implanted between June 1995 and

December 1999 (n = 203) were followed until July 2002.

Evaluations/Measurements: We used conditional logistic regression to

explore the association between community air pollution and 91

electrophysiologist-confirmed episodes of PAF among 29 subjects.

Results: We found a statistically significant positive association

between episodes of PAF and increased ozone concentration (22 ppb) in

the hour before the arrhythmia (odds ratio = 2.08 ; 95% confidence

interval = 1.22, 3.54 ; p = 0.001). The risk estimate for a longer

(24-hr) moving average was smaller, thus suggesting an immediate

effect. Positive but not statistically significant risks were

associated with fine particles, nitrogen dioxide, and black carbon.

Conclusions: Increased ambient O3 pollution was associated with

increased risk of episodes of rapid ventricular response due to PAF,

thereby suggesting that community air pollution may be a precipitant

of these events.