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

BACKGROUND: 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. METHODS: 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, I(2) and Cochran Q test were used to evaluate the heterogeneity. RESULTS: 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. CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis demonstrated that patients with atopic diseases have a higher risk of developing AF, particularly those with asthma.