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Serum magnesium and risk of new onset heart failure in men: the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Study

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Abstract

Serum magnesium is an essential intracellular cation involved in processes that regulate cardiovascular function and has been linked to the risk of several cardiovascular disease outcomes. We aimed to investigate the association of serum magnesium concentrations with risk of incident heart failure (HF). We studied 2181 middle-aged men without prevalent HF (aged 42–61 years) enrolled in the finnish Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease prospective cohort study with serum magnesium measurements made at baseline. Hazard ratios (95 % confidence intervals [CI]) for HF were assessed. During a median follow-up of 24.8 years, 278 HF events occurred. Baseline serum magnesium was weakly and inversely associated with several clinical markers and was continuously associated with risk of HF. The age-adjusted HR (95 % CIs) for HF per 1 standard deviation (SD) higher serum magnesium levels was 0.86 (0.76–0.97). The HR (95 % CIs) was 0.87 (0.76–0.98) after controlling for measures of adiposity, socio-economic variables, medical history, blood pressure, renal function, alcohol consumption, and lipids. These findings remained consistent in analyses accounting for incident coronary heart disease. The results were comparable across several clinically relevant subgroups and analyses with atrial fibrillation as a competing risk yielded similar results. Serum magnesium was continuously, inversely and independently associated with future risk of HF. Further research is needed to assess any potential relevance of serum magnesium in HF prevention.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the staff of the Kuopio Research Institute of Exercise Medicine and the Research Institute of Public Health and University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland for the data collection in the study.

Funding

This work was supported by the Academy of Finland, Helsinki, Finland; Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research, Helsinki, Finland, and Finnish Cultural Foundation, Helsinki, Finland. These sources had no role in design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; and preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Clinical Sciences, Learning and Research Building (Level 1), Southmead Hospital, University of Bristol, Southmead Road, Bristol, BS10 5NB, UK

    Setor K. Kunutsor

  2. Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Hassan Khan

  3. Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland

    Jari A. Laukkanen

  4. Central Finland Central Hospital, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Jari A. Laukkanen

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  1. Setor K. Kunutsor
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  2. Hassan Khan
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Correspondence to Setor K. Kunutsor.

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Kunutsor, S.K., Khan, H. & Laukkanen, J.A. Serum magnesium and risk of new onset heart failure in men: the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Study. Eur J Epidemiol 31, 1035–1043 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-016-0164-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-016-0164-4

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