Genetic associations of cardiometabolic risk factors and mitral regurgitation

Abstract Background It has been investigated the casual association between systolic blood pressure and valvular heart diseases, but other cardiometabolic risk factors and ventricular-related diseases and atrial-related diseases for mitral regurgitation remain largely unclear. Methods This study used a Mendelian randomization (MR) method to assess the relationships between the main cardiometabolic risk factors and cardiovascular diseases with mitral regurgitation. Instruments for the genetic effect of exposure ( Body Mass Index, Waist Circumference, Systolic Blood Pressure, Diastolic Blood Pressure, Low- Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol, High Density Lipoprotein, Triglyceride, Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 diabetes, Fasting glucose, C-reactive protein, Atrial Fibrillation, Myocardial Infarction, Heart Failure ) were extracted from the IEU Open GWAS project or meta-analysis among participants of European ancestry (linkage disequilibrium threshold of r2<0.001 ). Instruments for outcome variables (mitral regurgitation) were identified from UK Biobank. The inverse variance weighted (IVW) method was used as the main method. Results Cardiometabolic risk factors associated with a higher risk of mitral regurgitation included: systolic blood pressure OR: 1.00006, 95% CI: 1.000003-1.000115, P=0.0385 and cardiovascular diseases included atrial fibrillation (AF) OR:1.000946, 95% CI: 1.000239-1.001654, P=0.0088. No apparent associations with mitral regurgitation were obtained for genetic instruments for other factors. Conclusion Our Mendelian analysis proved that systolic blood pressure and atrial fibrillation were associated with the risk of mitral regurgitation.