AUTHOR=Yin Meng , Xu Wenchang , Pang Jixiang , Xie Siwen , Xiang Mengting , Shi Bin , Fan Hua , Yu Gongchang 

TITLE=Causal relationship between osteoarthritis with atrial fibrillation and coronary atherosclerosis: a bidirectional Mendelian randomization study of European ancestry

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cardiovascular-medicine/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2023.1213672

DOI=10.3389/fcvm.2023.1213672

ISSN=2297-055X

ABSTRACT=Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease with high prevalence. Some observational studies have shown that patients with osteoarthritis often have co-existing cardiovascular diseases (CVD) such as atrial fibrillation (AF) and coronary atherosclerosis (CA). However, there is still a lack of stronger evidence confirming the association between osteoarthritis and cardiovascular disease. In this study, we used a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization study to investigate the relationship between OA with AF and CA.Methods: OA data from the UK Biobank and arcOGEN (Arthritis Research UK Osteoarthritis Genetics, a study that aimed to find genetic determinants of osteoarthritis and elucidate the genetic architecture of the disease) integration were selected for the study (n = 417596), AF data were obtained from six studies (n = 1030836), and coronary atherosclerosis data were derived from the FinnGen (n = 218792). MR analysis was performed primarily using the Inverse variance weighted (IVW) method, with MR Egger, weighted median, simple mode, weighted mode as supplements, sensitivity analysis was performed using Cochran Q statistic, and leave-one-out analysis.We found that OA and AF were positively associated (IVW: OR (95% CI):1.11(1.04,1.19), P = 0.002), while OA and CA were negatively associated (IVW: OR (95% CI): 0.88(0.79,0.98), P = 0.02). In the reverse MR analysis, no effect of AF on OA was found (IVW: OR (95% CI): 1.00(0.97,1.03), P = 0.84), meanwhile, CA and OA were found to be associated negatively (IVW: OR (95%CI): 0.95(0.92,0.99), P = 0.01). No violations of MR assumptions were found in the sensitivity analysis.This research confirms that OA is a risk factor for AF, and there is a mutual protective factor between OA and CA. However, further studies are still necessary to elucidate the underlying mechanisms.