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Perfluorooctanoic acid exposure is associated with elevated homocysteine and hypertension in US adults
Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 06/12/2012
Min JY et al. – These findings suggest that background exposure to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) may continue a risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases.
Methods- A cross-sectional study of 2934 adults who participated in the 2003–2004 and 2005–2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and had detectable levels of PFOA in their serum.
- The health effects analysed as potentially associated with PFOA exposure included homocysteine level and blood pressure.
- The geometric mean value (95% CI) of the study participants' serum PFOA concentration was 4.00 ug/l (95% CI 3.86 to 4.13).
- The homocysteine and systolic blood pressure were shown to increase significantly with an increase in the log-transformed serum PFOA concentration, after adjusting for potential confounding variables.
- Adjusted ORs comparing participants at the 80th versus the 20th percentiles were 2.62 for hypertension (95% CI 2.09 to 3.14), and a positive association was also evident in models based on quartiles or based on restricted cubic splines.