Association of Autoimmune Vasculitis and Incident Atrial Fibrillation: A Population-Based Case-Control Study

Background Recent investigations suggest that inflammation and autoimmunity might have a role in the pathophysiology of atrial fibrillation (AF). Given that abnormal ventriculovascular coupling often coexists with AF, we hypothesize that autoimmune vasculitis plays a significant role in the pathogenetic mechanism of AF. Methods and Results A standardized retrospective population-based case-control study was conducted to evaluate the association between autoimmune vasculitis and AF, and all-cause mortality. The study included 8459 patients with a new diagnosis of AF and 8459 age-, sex-, and registration calendar year-matched controls in Olmsted County, Minnesota, between January 1, 1980 and December 31, 2010. The association of each clinical characteristic, diagnosis, and treatment was assessed using conditional logistic regression to account for the matched case-control study design. Cox proportional hazards regression models and Kaplan-Meier curves were used to detect independent predictors of mortality and examine cumulative survival. Of a total of 16 918 patients (mean age 72.3+14.4 years; 48.7% women), 320 (1.9%) were diagnosed with autoimmune vasculitis before the index date during the 30-year period. Among the cases, the prevalence of any autoimmune vasculitis was 2.3%, whereas the frequency of autoimmune vasculitis in controls was 1.5% (P<0.001). After adjusting for potential confounders, the odds of autoimmune vasculitis in AF cases was 1.5 times higher than in controls (odds ratio, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.04-2.01;P=0.03). Patients with AF and autoimmune vasculitis had worse 5-year survival than those without autoimmune vasculitis or AF (44.7% versus 77.2%; log-rankP<0.001). Conclusions Autoimmune vasculitis is significantly associated with AF and independently confers worse survival. These observations may represent one mechanism linking autoimmunity and inflammation to the pathogenesis and prognosis of AF.