Association of atopic diseases with atrial fibrillation risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Atopic diseases and atrial fibrillation (AF) seem to share an underlying inflammatory pathology. To date, some population-based studies have explored the relationship between the two. We aimed to conduct a meta-analysis to examine the role of atopic condition in AF risk.

All relevant observational studies in PubMed and EMBASE databases up to November 2021 were searched. In RevMan 5.3, we used random-effects or fixed-effects models to pool the effect sizes of hazard ratio (HR), odds ratio (OR) and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). In addition, I² and Cochran Q test were used to evaluate the heterogeneity.

A total of 2488 records were retrieved. After screening according to the predetermined criteria, 6 cohort studies and 2 case-control studies were included in this meta-analysis. Herein, the meta-analysis of 6 cohort studies suggested that atopic diseases potentially increased the AF risk with the pooled HR of 1.26 (95%CI,1.14-1.39), while the pooled effect size (OR, 1.04; 95%CI,0.74-1.46) of 2 case-control studies was not statistically significant. Based on the types of atopic diseases, further subgroup analyses of 6 cohort studies revealed that asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis all potentially increased the risk of subsequent AF with the pooled HR of 1.41 (n = 4; 95%CI, 1.25-1.58), 1.12 (n = 1; 95%CI,1.10-1.14) and 1.06 (n = 3; 95%CI, 1.01-1.12), respectively.

This meta-analysis demonstrated that patients with atopic diseases have a higher risk of developing AF, particularly those with asthma.