Omega-3 Fatty Acid Biomarkers and Incident Atrial Fibrillation.

BACKGROUND

The relationship between omega-3 fatty acids and atrial fibrillation (AF) remains controversial.

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to determine the prospective associations of blood or adipose tissue levels of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) with incident AF.

METHODS

We used participant-level data from a global consortium of 17 prospective cohort studies, each with baseline data on blood or adipose tissue omega-3 fatty acid levels and AF outcomes. Each participating study conducted a de novo analyses using a prespecified analytical plan with harmonized definitions for exposures, outcome, covariates, and subgroups. Associations were pooled using inverse-variance weighted meta-analysis.

RESULTS

Among 54,799 participants from 17 cohorts, 7,720 incident cases of AF were ascertained after a median 13.3 years of follow-up. In multivariable analysis, EPA levels were not associated with incident AF, HR per interquintile range (ie, the difference between the 90th and 10th percentiles) was 1.00 (95% CI: 0.95-1.05). HRs for higher levels of DPA, DHA, and EPA+DHA, were 0.89 (95% CI: 0.83-0.95), 0.90 (95% CI: 0.85-0.96), and 0.93 (95% CI: 0.87-0.99), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

In vivo levels of omega-3 fatty acids including EPA, DPA, DHA, and EPA+DHA were not associated with increased risk of incident AF. Our data suggest the safety of habitual dietary intakes of omega-3 fatty acids with respect to AF risk. Coupled with the known benefits of these fatty acids in the prevention of adverse coronary events, our study suggests that current dietary guidelines recommending fish/omega-3 fatty acid consumption can be maintained.

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2023 American College of Cardiology Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Funding Support and Author Disclosures The Fatty Acid Research Institute retrospectively provided a small honorarium to a subset of the analysts who participated in this study, but it had no role in the design, analysis, manuscript writing, nor decision to submit for publication. Detailed funding information for the individual cohorts can be found in the Supplemental Appendix, specifically Supplemental Table 4. None of the funders/sponsors played any role in the collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; or decision to submit the manuscript for publication. Dr O'Donoghue is a member of the TIMI Study Group, which has received institutional research grant support through Brigham and Women’s Hospital from Amgen, Novartis, Janssen, and AstraZeneca; and has received consulting fees from Amgen, Novartis, Janssen, and AstraZeneca. Dr Albert has received consulting fees from Boston Scientific, Medtronic, Novartis, and Element Science. Dr Morrow is a member of the TIMI Study group, which has received institutional research grant support through Brigham and Women’s Hospital from Abbott Laboratories, Amgen, Anthos Therapeutics, Arca Biopharma, AstraZeneca, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, Inc, Daiichi-Sankyo, Eisai, Intarcia, Janssen, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, Quark Pharmaceuticals, Regeneron, Roche, Siemens, The Medicines Company, and Zora Biosciences; and has received consulting fees from ARCA, InCarda, Inflammatix, Merck, Novartis, and Roche Diagnostics. Dr O’Keefe has a major ownership interest in Cardiotabs (a company that markets supplements including omega-3). Dr Mozaffarian, outside of the submitted work, has received research funding from the Gates Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the Vail Institute for Global Research; has received personal fees from Acasti Pharma, Barilla, Danone, and Motif FoodWorks; has served on the scientific advisory board of Beren Therapeutics, Brightseed, Calibrate, DayTwo (ended June 20, 2023), Elysium Health, Filtricine, Foodome, HumanCo, January Inc, Perfect Day, Season, and Tiny Organics; has stock ownership in Calibrate and HumanCo; and has chapter royalties from UpToDate. Dr Harris holds stock in OmegaQuant Analytics, LLC (a laboratory that offers blood fatty acid testing); and is on the Scientific Advisory Boards for the Schiff Institute Science and Innovation, Synspira, and the Seafood Nutrition Partnership. All other authors have reported that they have no relationships relevant to the contents of this paper to disclose.