Plasma Phospholipid Concentration of Cis-Palmitoleic Acid and Risk of Heart Failure

Background-Although plasma palmitoleic acid has been positively associated with blood pressure, inflammation, and insulin resistance, its association with heart failure has not been investigated. We assessed whether plasma phospholipid cis-palmitoleic acid was associated with heart failure risk. Methods and Results-This ancillary study of the Physicians' Health Study used a risk set sampling method to select 788 matched pairs. For each case of incident heart failure, we randomly selected a control among subjects that were free of heart failure and alive at the time of index case diagnosis and matched on age, year of birth, race, and time of blood collection. Plasma phospholipid fatty acids were measured using gas chromatography. Heart failure was ascertained using annual follow-up questionnaire and validated in a subsample. In a multivariable conditional logistic regression, odds ratios (95% CI) for heart failure were 1.0 (ref), 1.06 (0.75-1.48), 1.20 (0.85-1.68), and 1.58 (1.11-2.25) across consecutive quartiles of cis-palmitoleic acid (P for trend 0.009). Each SD increase in plasma cis-palmitoleic acid was associated with 17% higher odds of heart failure (95% CI: 2% to 33%) in a multivariable model. In a secondary analysis, each SD increase of log-stearoyl-coA desaturase activity (16:1n-7/16:0 ratio) was positively associated with the risk of heart failure (odds ratio: 1.14 [95% CI: 1.00 to 1.29]), whereas oleic acid and cis-vaccenic acid concentrations were not related to heart failure risk. Conclusions-Our data showed a positive association between plasma phospholipid cis-palmitoleic acid and heart failure risk in male physicians. (Circ Heart Fail. 2012;5:703-709.)