Bone health, cardiovascular disease and imaging outcomes in UK biobank: a causal analysis

This study examined the association of estimated heel bone mineral density (eBMD, derived from quantitative ultrasound) with: 1) prevalent and incident cardiovascular diseases (CVDs: ischaemic heart disease (IHD), myocardial infarction (MI), heart failure, non-ischaemic cardiomyopathy (NICM), arrhythmia), 2) mortality (all-cause, CVD, IHD), and 3) cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) measures of left ventricular and atrial structure and function and aortic distensibility, in the UK Biobank. Clinical outcomes were ascertained using health record linkage over 12.3 years of prospective follow-up. Two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) was conducted to assess causal associations between BMD and CMR metrics using genetic instrumental variables identified from published genome-wide association studies. The analysis included 485 257 participants (55% women, mean age 56.5 ± 8.1 years). Higher heel eBMD was associated with lower odds of all prevalent CVDs considered. The greatest magnitude of effect was seen in association with heart failure and NICM, where 1-SD increase in eBMD was associated with 15% lower odds of heart failure and 16% lower odds of NICM. Association between eBMD and incident IHD and MI were non-significant; the strongest relationship was with incident heart failure (SHR: 0.90 [95% CI: 0.89-0.92]). Higher eBMD was associated with a decreased risk in all-cause, CVD, and IHD mortality, in the fully adjusted model. Higher eBMD was associated with greater aortic distensibility; associations with other CMR metrics were null. Higher heel eBMD is linked to reduced risk of a range of prevalent and incident CVD and mortality outcomes. While observational analyses suggest associations between higher eBMD and greater aortic compliance, MR analysis did not support a causal relationship between genetically predicted BMD and CMR phenotypes. These findings support the notion that bone-cardiovascular associations reflect shared risk factors/mechanisms rather than direct causal pathways.