(Circulation. 2001;103:52.)
© 2001 American Heart Association, Inc.
Clinical Investigation and Reports |
Blood Donations and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in Men
From the Departments of Nutrition (A.A., E.B.R., E.G., W.C.W., M.J.S.) and Epidemiology (A.A., E.B.R., E.G., W.C.W., M.J.S.), Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Mass; and Channing Laboratory (E.B.R., E.G., W.C.W., M.J.S.), Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Mass.
Correspondence to Alberto Ascherio, MD, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115. E-mail alberto.ascherio{at}channing.harvard.edu
Background—In experimental animals, iron overload appears to promote atherosclerosis and ischemic myocardial damage, but the results of epidemiological studies that relate iron stores to risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) have been inconsistent.
Methods and Results—We
prospectively studied blood donations, which effectively reduce body
iron stores, in relation to the risk of CHD among participants in the
Health Professionals Follow-up Study. The lifetime history of
blood donation was assessed with a questionnaire in 1992. The 38 244
men who were free of diagnosed cardiovascular disease at that time were
included in the analyses. During 4 years of follow-up, we documented
328 nonfatal myocardial infarctions and 131 coronary deaths. Although
the number of lifetime blood donations was strongly associated with
lower plasma ferritin levels in a subsample, the blood donation was not
associated with risk of myocardial infarction or fatal CHD. The
age-adjusted relative risk (RR) of myocardial infarction for men in the
highest category of blood donations (
30) compared with never donors
was 1.2 (95% CI 0.8 to 1.8), and this RR was not materially changed
after adjustment for several coronary risk factors. No significant
associations were found between blood donation and the risk of
myocardial infarction in analyses restricted to men with
hypercholesterolemia or those who never used antioxidant supplements or
aspirin.
Conclusions—The study results do not support the hypothesis that reduced body iron stores lower CHD risk.
Key Words: coronary disease • men • iron • blood donation • heart diseases
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