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Individual PM2.5 exposure is associated with the impairment of cardiac autonomic modulation in general residents

Environmental Science and Pollution Research volume 23, pages 10255–10261 (2016)Cite this article

Abstract

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is one of the major pollutants in metropolitan areas. The current study was conducted to observe the effects of PM2.5 on cardiac autonomic modulation. The participants included 619 men and women aged from 35–75 in a residential area in Shanghai, China. All the participants were divided into four categories according to the distance between their apartments and major road. In addition, individual PM2.5 was measured using SIDEPAKTM AM510 (TSI, USA) from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm. At the end of the individual PM2.5 measurement, the systolic pressure, diastolic pressure, heart rate (HR), low-frequency (LF), high-frequency (HF), and LF/HF were determined. The association between individual PM2.5 level and the above health effects was analyzed using generalized linear regression. The results showed that the average concentration of individual PM2.5 was 95.5 and 87.0 μg/m3 for men and women. Residential distance to major road was negatively correlated with the individual PM2.5. The results indicated that per 1.0 μg/m3 increase of individual PM2.5 was associated with a 2.3 % increase for systolic pressure, 0.3 % increase for diastolic pressure, 0.4 % decrease for LF, and 0.4 % decrease for HF. Nevertheless, there was no statistical association between individual PM2.5 and heart rate and LF/HF in the total model. In addition, the similar results were found in men and women excluding a significant association between PM2.5 and the heart rate in men. The alterations of cardiac autonomic modulation hinted that PM2.5 exposure might be associated with the potential occurrence of cardiovascular disease, such as arrhythmia and ischemic heart diseases.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos.:91543119, 81001229)

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiology, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China

    Yuquan Xie & Yigang Li

  2. Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health and Key Laboratory of Public Health Safety, Fudan University, 331 Building 8, 130 Dong’an Road, Shanghai, 200032, China

    Liang Bo, Shuo Jiang, Zhenyong Tian, Haidong Kan, Weimin Song & Jinzhuo Zhao

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  1. Yuquan Xie
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  2. Liang Bo
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  3. Shuo Jiang
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Correspondence to Jinzhuo Zhao.

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The study was approved by the relevant institutional ethics committees and followed strict internal and external quality assurance protocols. The participants gave informed consent before the experiment.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Xie, Y., Bo, L., Jiang, S. et al. Individual PM2.5 exposure is associated with the impairment of cardiac autonomic modulation in general residents. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 10255–10261 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5933-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5933-1

Keywords

  • PM2.5
  • Cardiovascular disease
  • Cardiac autonomic modulation
  • Individual exposure