ArticleBMC medicine2021
Causal effects of atrial fibrillation on brain white and gray matter volume: a Mendelian randomization study.
Article in BMC medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Genetic analysis of imaging-derived phenotypes.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2026Review
- Atrial Fibrillation, Brain Structure and Cognitive Function: A Mediation Analysis.Korean circulation journal · 2026Article
- Characteristics of lipid metabolism and fat distribution in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism and their Mendelian randomization study.Endocrine · 2025Article
- Association of Atrial Fibrillation and Cognitive Dysfunction: A Comprehensive Narrative Review of Current Understanding and Recent Updates.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Review
- The causal effect of air pollution on the risk of essential hypertension: a Mendelian randomization study.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Celiac disease and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a bidirectional Mendelian randomization analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Causal relationships involving brain imaging-derived phenotypes based on UKB imaging cohort: a review of Mendelian randomization studies.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2024Review
- Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and stroke: a univariate and multivariate Mendelian randomization study.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Article
- The causal effects of age at menarche and age at menopause on sepsis: A two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis.PloS one · 2024Article
- Association of smoking with brain gray and white matter volume: a Mendelian randomization study.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2023Article
- Genetic Evidence for Causal Association Between Atrial Fibrillation and Dementia: A Mendelian Randomization Study.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2023Article
- At the heart of the matter: how mental stress and negative emotions affect atrial fibrillation.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2023Review
- Genome-Wide Studies in Ischaemic Stroke: Are Genetics Only Useful for Finding Genes?International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Age at menarche and ischemic heart disease: An update mendelian randomization study.Frontiers in genetics · 2022Article
- Mendelian randomization-a powerful tool to study the causal effects of atrial fibrillation on loss of brain volume.BMC medicine · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
15 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAtrial fibrillation (AF) and brain volume loss are prevalent in older individuals. We aimed to assess the causal effect of atrial fibrillation on brain volume phenotypes by Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis.
methodsThe genetic instrument for AF was constructed from a previous genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis (15,993 AF patients and 113,719 controls of European ancestry). The outcome summary statistics for head-size-normalized white or gray matter volume measured by magnetic resonance imaging were provided by a previous GWAS of 33,224 white British participants in the UK Biobank. Two-sample MR by the inverse variance-weighted method was performed, supported by pleiotropy-robust MR sensitivity analysis. The causal estimates for the effect of AF on ischemic stroke were also investigated in a dataset that included the findings from the MEGASTROKE study (34,217 stroke patients and 406,111 controls of European ancestry). The direct effects of AF on brain volume phenotypes adjusted for the mediating effect of ischemic stroke were studied by multivariable MR.
resultsA higher genetic predisposition for AF was significantly associated with lower grey matter volume [beta -0.040, standard error (SE) 0.017, P=0.017], supported by pleiotropy-robust MR sensitivity analysis. Significant causal estimates were identified for the effect of AF on ischemic stroke (beta 0.188, SE 0.026, P=1.03E-12). The total effect of AF on lower brain grey matter volume was attenuated by adjusting for the effect of ischemic stroke (direct effects, beta -0.022, SE 0.033, P=0.528), suggesting that ischemic stroke is a mediator of the identified causal pathway. The causal estimates were nonsignificant for effects on brain white matter volume as an outcome.
conclusionsThis study identified that genetic predisposition for AF is significantly associated with lower gray matter volume but not white matter volume. The results indicated that the identified total effect of AF on gray matter volume may be mediated by ischemic stroke.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.