Serum β-carotene and the risk of sudden cardiac death in men: A population-based follow-up study

Objectives: To examine whether serum concentrations of carotenoids are related to the risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in middle-aged men. Methods: The study population consisted of 1031 Finnish men aged 46-65 years of the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Risk Factor (KIHD) cohort. Serum concentrations of carotenoids were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. The hazard ratios (HR) of serum beta-carotene, lycopene and alpha-carotene were estimated by using the Cox proportional hazard model after adjusting for age and other potential confounding factors. Results: During a median follow-up of 15.9 years a total of 59 incidents of SCD occurred. After controlling for age, systolic blood pressure, waist circumference, smoking, alcohol consumption, years of education, serum LDL cholesterol, serum hs-CRP, diabetes, prevalent coronary heart disease (CHD) and congestive heart failure (CHF), men in the lowest tertile of serum concentrations of beta-carotene had a 2-fold increased risk of SCD (HR = 2.15, 95% CI: 1.02-4.51; p = 0.044) as compared to those in the highest tertile. The risk of SCD was borderline significant for lycopene. In addition, low serum beta-carotene concentrations increased the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and total mortality. Lycopene and alpha-carotene were not related to the risk of SCD. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that low serum beta-carotene concentrations may increase the risk of SCD in middle-aged Finnish men. Furthermore, low serum beta-carotene concentrations may be related to the risk of CVD and total mortality. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.