Associations between Space Weather Events and the Incidence of Acute Myocardial Infarction and Deaths from Ischemic Heart Disease

Vidmantas Vaičiulis,Daina Krančiukaitė-Butylkinienė,Ričardas Radišauskas,Dalia Lukšienė,Jonė Venclovienė,Abdonas Tamošiūnas,Deivydas Kiznys

doi:10.3390/atmos12030306

Vidmantas Vaičiulis, Daina Krančiukaitė-Butylkinienė + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12030306

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Abstract

The effects of charged solar particles hitting the Earth’s magnetosphere are often harmful and can be dangerous to the human organism. The aim of this study was to analyze the associations of geomagnetic storms (GSs) and other space weather events (solar proton events (SPEs), solar flares (SFs), high-speed solar wind (HSSW), interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) and stream interaction regions (SIRs)) with morbidity from acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and mortality from ischemic heart diseases (IHDs) during the period 2000–2015 in Kaunas (Lithuania). In 2000–2015, 12,330 AMI events (men/women n = 6942/5388) and 3742 deaths from IHD (men/women n = 2480/1262) were registered. The results showed that a higher risk of AMI and deaths from IHD were related to the period of 3 days before GS—a day after GS, and a stronger effect was observed during the spring–autumn period. The strongest effect of HSSW was observed on the day of the event. We found significant associations between the risk of AMI and death from IHD and the occurrence of SFs during GSs. We also found a statistically significant increase in rate ratios (RRs) for all AMIs and deaths from IHD between the second and fourth days of the period of ICMEs.

Highlights

Intense solar activity results in solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and highspeed solar wind (HSSW) streams
Depending on the different models used, many statistically significant relationships were found in different subgroups between some space weather events such as geomagnetic storms (GSs), ICMEs, X-class solar flares (SFs) occurring during GS, solar proton events (SPEs), HSSW, and the arrivals of high-speed plasma streams during stream interaction regions (SIRs), and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) morbidity and mortality from ischemic heart diseases (IHDs) in Kaunas region during the period 2000–2015
The current study revealed that the risk of AMI morbidity and mortality from IHD was significantly increased on the days around the days of impact over the threshold of space weather, but the effects depended on age and sex

Summary

Introduction

Intense solar activity results in solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and highspeed solar wind (HSSW) streams. These events can generate geomagnetic storms (GSs). A number of studies have shown that solar and geomagnetic activities (GMAs) affect a wide range of human behavioral and health outcomes, with the nervous and cardiovascular systems being the most clearly impacted. Some weather pattern or stratospheric conditions such as quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) may be influenced by GSs. The risk of AMI was positively associated with the GS due to stream interaction regions with a lag of 0–2 days during the east QBO phase and was negatively associated with them during the west QBO phase [19]. The correlations of blood pressure and heart rate with GMAs in young and healthy populations were stronger during special weather conditions [20]

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