Table 4.

Findings in Context

Evidence before this study:We searched MEDLINE up to March 10, 2017 for observational studies that assessed the association between telomere length and incident atrial fibrillation (“Telomere Shortening”[Mesh] OR “Telomere”[Mesh] OR telomere[tiab]) AND (“Atrial Fibrillation”[Mesh] OR “atrial fibrillation”[tiab]). Three previous studies have examined the association between shorter telomere length and risk of atrial fibrillation. The 3 studies were designed differently and reported conflicting results, with only 1 study supporting an association between shorter telomere length and atrial fibrillation

Added value of our study: Our observational study based on data from Framingham Heart Study did not support an association between shorter leukocyte telomere length and incident atrial fibrillation. The findings of our study are consistent with the observation that chronological aging is a strong predictor of incident atrial fibrillation, but leukocyte telomere length shortening is not a major predictor of incident atrial fibrillation

Implications of all the available evidence: There is a potential for using biomarkers as predictors of atrial fibrillation, but the evidence points in a direction that shorter telomere length may not be a suitable biomarker to predict atrial fibrillation