Arrhythmia: air pollution increases the risk

99% of people on the planet breathe excessively polluted air, according to the World Health Organization. The various pollutants present in the air can cause cardiovascular and respiratory disorders. But from what threshold of exposure, pollution becomes dangerous? Breathing polluted air could trigger heart problems almost immediately, according to a new study from China. The work has been published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

How to assess the effects of air pollution on the risk of heart disease?

“Few studies have explored the link between air pollution and the occurrence of hourly arrhythmianote the authors in the preamble. Our aim was to examine the association between exposure to air pollution and the occurrence of acute symptomatic arrhythmia at the hourly level.To do this, the researchers, from different Chinese universities, conducted a nationwide study between 2015 and 2021. In total, they collected data from more than 190,000 people who had suffered from a sleep disorder. heart rate. For each patient, the researchers matched the time of onset of their arrhythmia to three or four control periods with similar hourly criteria.”We obtained hourly information on the occurrence of symptomatic arrhythmia from the Chinese Cardiovascular Association database.say the authors.

Air pollution: exposure, even short, increases the risk of heart disease

They found that exposure to air pollution can trigger an immediate increase in cardiac arrhythmias. This observation was made with different types of air pollutants, but nitrogen dioxide had the most significant effects. The risk of arrhythmia generally increased in the first hours after exposure, then subsided after 24 hours. In the case of fine particles, the peak risk of atrial flutter, an increased heart rate, was reached two days after exposure. “Importantly, there were no apparent thresholds for the amount of exposure leading to harm, meaning that even small amounts were linked to excessive risk.”explain the authors in an article published on the site specializing in cardiology, TCTMD. They also add that while the study was carried out in China, where pollution levels are very high, these results may be relevant in other countries.

Cardiovascular disorders: fight against pollution to preserve our heart health

“Although the adverse effects of air pollution on arrhythmia have already been reported, we were still surprised at the very rapid effects“, adds Renjie Chen, lead author of the study. For him, this once again underlines the need “to address air pollution as a public health problem and to integrate air pollution reduction into prevention and intervention strategies for patients with arrhythmia”. He recalls that cardiovascular diseases are the main cause of death in the world, and pollution could contribute to a large part of it.