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BackgroundCholesterol and triglycerides are among the most well-known risk factors for cardiovascular disease.ObjectivesThis study investigated whether higher low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and triglyceride levels and lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level are causal risk factors for changes in prognostically important left ventricular (LV) parameters.MethodsOne-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) of 17,311 European individuals from the UK Biobank with paired lipid and cardiovascular magnetic resonance data was performed. Two-sample MR was performed by using summary-level data from the Global Lipid Genetics Consortium (n = 188,577) and UK Biobank Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance substudy (n = 16,923) for sensitivity analyses.ResultsIn 1-sample MR analysis, higher LDL cholesterol was causally associated with higher LV end-diastolic volume (β = 1.85 ml; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.59 to 3.14 ml; p = 0.004) and higher LV mass (β = 0.81 g; 95% CI: 0.11 to 1.51 g; p = 0.023) and triglycerides with higher LV mass (β = 1.37 g; 95% CI: 0.45 to 2.3 g; p = 0.004). High-density lipoprotein cholesterol had no significant association with any LV parameter. Similar results were obtained by using 2-sample MR. Observational analyses were frequently discordant with those derived from MR.ConclusionsMR analysis demonstrates that LDL cholesterol and triglycerides are associated with adverse changes in cardiac structure and function, in particular in relation to LV mass. These findings suggest that LDL cholesterol and triglycerides may have a causal effect in influencing cardiac morphology in addition to their established role in atherosclerosis.

Original publication

DOI

10.1016/j.jacc.2020.09.583

Type

Journal article

Journal

Journal of the American College of Cardiology

Publication Date

11/2020

Volume

76

Pages

2477 - 2488

Addresses

William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom; National Institute for Health Research Barts Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Centre, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom; Barts Heart Centre, St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, United Kingdom. Electronic address: n.aung@qmul.ac.uk.

Keywords

Heart Ventricles, Humans, Triglycerides, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Prospective Studies, Aged, Middle Aged, Female, Male, Cholesterol, LDL, Mendelian Randomization Analysis