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Associations between inflammation, cardiovascular biomarkers and incident frailty: the British Regional Heart Study

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Sheena Ramsay

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).


Abstract

© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.INTRODUCTION: cardiovascular disease (CVD) and chronic inflammation are implicated in the development of frailty. Longitudinal analyses of inflammatory markers, biomarkers of cardiac dysfunction and incidence of frailty are limited. METHODS: in the British Regional Heart Study, 1,225 robust or pre-frail men aged 71-92 years underwent a baseline examination, with questionnaire-based frailty assessment after 3 years. Frailty definitions were based on the Fried phenotype. Associations between incident frailty and biomarkers of cardiac dysfunction (high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT), N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP)) and inflammation (C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6)) were examined, by tertile, with the lowest as reference. RESULTS: follow-up data were available for 981 men. Ninety one became frail. Adjusted for age, pre-frailty, prevalent and incident CVD, comorbidity, polypharmacy and socioeconomic status, IL-6 (third tertile OR 2.36, 95% CI 1.07-5.17) and hs-cTnT (third tertile OR 2.24, 95% CI 1.03-4.90) were associated with increased odds of frailty. CRP (third tertile OR 1.83, 95% CI 0.97-4.08) and NT-proBNP (second tertile OR 0.48, 95% CI 0.23-1.01) showed no significant association with incident frailty. The top tertiles of CRP, IL-6, hscTnT and NT-proBNP were strongly associated with mortality prior to follow-up. CONCLUSION: IL-6 is associated with incident frailty, supporting the prevailing argument that inflammation is involved in the pathogenesis of frailty. Cardiomyocyte injury may be associated with frailty risk. Associations between elevated CRP and frailty cannot be fully discounted; NT-proBNP may have a non-linear relationship with incident frailty. CRP, IL-6, hs-cTnT and NT-proBNP are vulnerable to survivorship bias.


Publication metadata

Author(s): McKechnie DGJ, Papacosta AO, Lennon LT, Ramsay SE, Whincup PH, Wannamethee SG

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Age and Ageing

Year: 2021

Volume: 50

Issue: 6

Pages: 1979-1987

Print publication date: 01/11/2021

Online publication date: 10/07/2021

Acceptance date: 02/04/2018

Date deposited: 12/01/2022

ISSN (print): 1468-2834

ISSN (electronic): 0002-0729

Publisher: Oxford University Press

URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab143

DOI: 10.1093/ageing/afab143

PubMed id: 34254997


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