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Coarse particulate matter unrelated to CVD hospital admissions
16 May 2008
MedWire News: Levels of coarse airborne particulate matter in the atmosphere are not associated with the number of coinciding hospital admissions for cardiovascular disease (CVD), a US study shows.
The health risks associated with fine particulate matter of 2.5 µm or less in aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5) have been studied extensively over the past decade, but evidence concerning those potentially related to the coarse fraction of greater than 2.5 µm and 10 µm or less in aerodynamic diameter (PM10-2.5) is limited, explain Francesca Dominici (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland) and colleagues.
The team studied daily CVD and respiratory disease admission rates, temperature and dew-point temperature, and PM10-2.5 and PM2.5 levels between 1999 and 2005.
Hospital admission rates were determined from Medicare National Claims History Files for around 12 million Medicare patients living on average 9 miles from PM10-2.5 and PM2.5 monitors.
The researchers report in the Journal of the American Medical Association that there were a total of 3.7 million CVD admissions and 1.4 million respiratory admissions during the study period.
Each 10-µg/m3 increase in PM10-2.5 was associated with a 0.36% increase in CVD admission on the same day. But after adjusting for PM2.5 levels, this association became nonsignificant, at a 0.25% increase.
Neither unadjusted nor adjusted increases in respiratory admissions with this increment in PM10-2.5 were significant.
The team concludes: "The current study found no statistically significant association at the national level of cardiovascular risk and ambient exposure to coarse particulate matter.
"Nevertheless, we recommend that these findings be considered when the NAAQS for particulate matter is next reviewed, and that the monitoring of PM10 continue so that further studies can be performed."
