Association between plasma viscosity and all-cause mortality: results from the MONICA-Augsburg Cohort Study 1984-92

Several studies have reported a strong association between various markers of the acute-phase response and death from cardiovascular diseases and all-cause mortality. Inflammation at a low level of intensity may be a common phenomenon associated with the majority of causes of death owing to chronic diseases. We sought to investigate the association of plasma viscosity with all-cause mortality in a cohort of apparently healthy men. The study population consisted of 964 men aged 45-64 years at entry, randomly selected from the general population and taking part in the first MONICA-Augsburg survey 1984-85. The main outcome measure was all-cause mortality. During 8 years of follow-up, there were 81 deaths (37 cardiovascular deaths, 23 deaths from cancer and 21 deaths from other causes). There was a strong positive and statistically significant age-adjusted relationship between plasma viscosity and all-cause mortality. The relative risk of death for a one standard deviation increase in plasma viscosity (0.070 mPa/s) was 1.45 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.19-1.76]. After further adjusting for smoking, total cholesterol, body mass index, blood pressure and education, a relative risk of 1.41 (95% CI 1.14-1.74) resulted. Other risk variables had only negligible confounding effects. The relative risk of the median of the top quintile of the plasma viscosity distribution compared with the median of the bottom quintile, computed from the adjusted model, was 2.68 (95% CI 1.63-4.42). These findings suggest that plasma viscosity may have considerable potential to predict death from all causes in middle-aged men.