Association of Sex Hormones, Aging and Atrial Fibrillation in Men: The Framingham Heart Study

AHA – CIRCEP: March 8, 2014

Background—Endogenous sex hormones have been related to cardiovascular outcomes and mortality. We hypothesized that sex hormones are related to atrial fibrillation (AF) in a community-based cohort of middle-aged to older men.

Methods and Results—We examined testosterone, estradiol, and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate [DHEA-S]) in relation to incident AF in men participating in the Framingham Heart Study. We assessed the 10-year risk of AF in multivariable-adjusted hazard models. The cohort consisted of 1251 men (age 68.0±8.2), of whom 275 developed incident AF. We identified a significant interaction between age and testosterone, and therefore stratified men into age 55-69 (n=786), 70-79 (n=351), and ≥80 (n=114). In men 55-69 each 1-standard deviation (SD) decrease in testosterone was associated with hazard ratio (HR) 1.30 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.07 to 1.59) for incident AF. The association between testosterone and 10-year incident AF in men 70-79 did not reach statistical significance. In men ≥80 years a 1-SD decrease in testosterone was associated with HR 3.53 (95% CI, 1.96 to 6.37) for AF risk. Read More