Association between Serum Parathyroid Hormone Levels and the Prevalence of Atrial Fibrillation: the Dong-gu Study

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES We aimed to investigate the association between serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels and the prevalence of atrial fibrillation (AF) in a population based study. METHODS This study included a total of 9,007 community-dwelling Koreans aged 50 years and over who were enrolled in the Dong-gu study from 2007 to 2010. Electrocardiograms were recorded from the subjects using the HP-PageWriter 200 M1771A. All potential cases of AF were determined by 2 cardiologists. PTH concentration was measured by a chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the relationship between the quartiles of PTH and AF, adjusting for potential confounders. RESULTS The prevalence of AF was 2.41% in males and 0.9% in females and increased with advanced age in both genders. The median and interquartile range (IQR) of serum PTH was 39.5 pg/mL (IQR, 30.6-50.8), which was significantly higher in patients with AF than in patients without AF (p<0.001). The prevalence of AF increased with increasing PTH quartile (0.8%, 0.9%, 1.6%, and 2.8% in the lowest, second, third, and highest PTH quartiles, respectively; p<0.001). Multivariable logistic analysis adjusted for cardiovascular risk factors showed the highest quartile of serum PTH levels was associated with a higher prevalence of AF than the lowest quartile (odds ratio, 3.34; 95% confidence interval, 1.93-5.78). CONCLUSIONS Higher levels of serum PTH were associated with higher prevalence of AF. Further studies are needed to determine whether this association is present in other populations and in a prospective study setting.