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Ambient fine particles modify heart rate variability in young healthy adults

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 16, pages 125–130 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Particulate air pollution has been related with cardiopulmonary morbidity and mortality. Recent studies have shown that an increase in particulate matter (PM)2.5 ambient concentrations was associated with a decrease in heart rate variability (HRV) in the elderly with cardiovascular conditions, which could increase the risk of death. In order to assess if this association could also be observed in young adults, we studied 40 young healthy residents of the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) who underwent 13 h Holter electrocardiographic and PM2.5 personal monitoring. HRV was evaluated in time domain: the standard deviation of normal RR intervals (SDNN) and the percentage of differences between adjacent normal RR intervals larger than 50 ms (pNN50). In multivariate analysis with mixed effects models, a significant negative association of pNN50 with PM2.5 accumulative exposure was found. An increase in 30 μg/m3 of the average PM2.5 personal exposure in the previous 2 h decreased the pNN50 in 0.08% (P=0.01). This observation revealed an acute effect related to environmental exposure to PM2.5 with regard to HRV in normal youngsters. The long-term health consequences of this association in young healthy adults remain to be clarified.

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Acknowledgements

We express our deepest gratitude to the individuals who participated voluntarily in this study and thank Ms Betty Lou Chin R.N. for her support in the preparation of the manuscript, and Dr Manlio F Marquez for interpreting Holter data. Financial support for this study was provided by Sectorial Fund CONACyT/Semarnat No. 047.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Subdirección de Investigación Clínica, Instituto Nacional de Cardiología Ignacio Chávez, Tlalpan, Mexico

    Maite Vallejo, Antonio G Hermosillo & Manuel Cárdenas

  2. Departamento de Estadística y Probabilidad, Instituto de Investigación en Matemáticas Aplicadas y en Sistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico

    Silvia Ruiz

  3. Coordinación de Salud en el Trabajo, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Mexico City, Mexico

    Víctor H Borja-Aburto

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  1. Maite Vallejo
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  2. Silvia Ruiz
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  3. Antonio G Hermosillo
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  4. Víctor H Borja-Aburto
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  5. Manuel Cárdenas
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Correspondence to Maite Vallejo.

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Vallejo, M., Ruiz, S., Hermosillo, A. et al. Ambient fine particles modify heart rate variability in young healthy adults. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 16, 125–130 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jea.7500447

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