Atrial Fibrillation in Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Is Associated With Polymorphism of Interleukin 6 Gene

Abstract

It can be suggested that development of atrial fibrillation (AF) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is directly related to the system of inflammation. Genetic polymorphism of factors of this system can be one of components of mechanism of AF in COPD. Aim: to elucidate polymorphic markers of genes of factors of the system of inflammation associated with AF in patients with COPD. Material and methods. We examined 208 patients with COPD (52 with and 156 without AF). Examination included spirometry, echocardiography, and study of frequencies of polymorphic markers G(-238)A, G(-308)A of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) gene, C(-819)T of interleukin (IL) 10 gene, G(-174)C of IL-6 gene, rs2228145(AC) of IL-6R gene, and rs2069762(A/C) of IL-2 gene. RESULTS. Factors associated with AF were left atrial volume (odds ratio [OR] 1.021, 95% confidence interval [ClI] 1.004-1.043, p = 0,027), right atrial volume (OR 1.02, 95% CI 1.001-1.040, p=0.021), and carriage of C allele of polymorphic marker G(-174)C of IL-6 gene (OR 6.02, 95% Cl 1.87-19.38, p = 0.003). C allele of polymorphic marker G(-174)C of IL-6 gene can be considered to be independently associated with development of AF in patients with COPD.