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Cadmium Exposure and Clinical Cardiovascular Disease: A Systematic Review

  • Nutrition (BV Howard, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Mounting evidence supports that cadmium, a toxic metal found in tobacco, air and food, is a cardiovascular risk factor. Our objective was to conduct a systematic review of epidemiologic studies evaluating the association between cadmium exposure and cardiovascular disease. Twelve studies were identified. Overall, the pooled relative risks (95 % confidence interval) for cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, and peripheral arterial disease were: 1.36 (95 % CI: 1.11, 1.66), 1.30 (95 % CI: 1.12, 1.52), 1.18 (95 % CI: 0.86, 1.59), and 1.49 (95 % CI: 1.15, 1.92), respectively. The pooled relative risks for cardiovascular disease in men, women and never smokers were 1.29 (1.12, 1.48), 1.20 (0.92, 1.56) and 1.27 (0.97, 1.67), respectively. Together with experimental evidence, our review supports the association between cadmium exposure and cardiovascular disease, especially for coronary heart disease. The number of studies with stroke, heart failure (HF) and peripheral arterial disease (PAD) endpoints was small. More studies, especially studies evaluating incident endpoints, are needed.

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Abbreviations

CI:

Confidence interval

CHD:

Coronary heart disease

CVD:

Cardiovascular disease

PAD:

Peripheral arterial disease

HF:

Heart failure

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Acknowledgments

This research is supported by grants from the US National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (R01HL090863) and the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (R01ES021367). M.T.-P. and A.D.L. were supported by a Miguel Servet grant from the Funds for Research in Health Sciences, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Spain (CP12/03080). M.R.J. was also supported by the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Institutional Training from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (T32HL007024).

Conflict of Interest

Maria Tellez-Plaza, Miranda R Jones, Alejandro Dominguez-Lucas, Eliseo Guallarm and Ana Navas-Acien declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fundacion de Investigacion del Hospital Clinico de Valencia-INCLIVA, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Avda. Blasco Ibáñez 15, 46010, Valencia, Spain

    Maria Tellez-Plaza & Alejandro Dominguez-Lucas

  2. Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 North Wolfe Street, Room W7513D, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA

    Maria Tellez-Plaza, Miranda R. Jones & Ana Navas-Acien

  3. Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2024 E. Monument Street, Room 2-639, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA

    Miranda R. Jones, Eliseo Guallar & Ana Navas-Acien

  4. Department of Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Miranda R. Jones, Eliseo Guallar & Ana Navas-Acien

  5. Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Eliseo Guallar

  6. Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Ana Navas-Acien

Authors
  1. Maria Tellez-Plaza
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  2. Miranda R. Jones
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  3. Alejandro Dominguez-Lucas
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  4. Eliseo Guallar
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  5. Ana Navas-Acien
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Tellez-Plaza.

Additional information

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Nutrition

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Tellez-Plaza, M., Jones, M.R., Dominguez-Lucas, A. et al. Cadmium Exposure and Clinical Cardiovascular Disease: A Systematic Review. Curr Atheroscler Rep 15, 356 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11883-013-0356-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11883-013-0356-2

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