Association between cardiovascular risk, apneic signs, and non-cardiovascular hematological markers: a community-based study

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major concern in aging populations and is often accompanied by other clinical symptoms. Although multiple cardiovascular markers in the blood have been identified, conventionally considered non-cardiovascular hematological markers have not been comprehensively examined in cardiovascular aging. Moreover, whether coexisting clinical symptoms are associated with CVD risk via non-cardiovascular hematological markers remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate comorbid clinical symptoms, non-cardiovascular hematological markers, and their associations with CVD risk in healthy aging. Detailed clinical and hematological examinations were administered to a community healthy aging cohort ( N = 756). The Framingham risk score was used to estimate CVD risk and classify each participant into the low-, intermediate-, or high-risk group. The intermediate-risk and high-risk groups exhibited more apneic symptoms but comparable cognition, frailty, sarcopenia, depression, and daytime sleepiness compared with the low-risk group. Significant group differences were found in electrolytic, renal, and inflammatory markers, ferritin, white and red blood cell counts, hemoglobin, and hematocrit; among these, creatinine, lymphocyte, monocyte, and eosinophil were the most important markers associated with CVD risk. Results of a path analysis revealed that creatinine, monocyte, eosinophil, and lymphocyte were directly associated with CVD risk. Apneic symptoms, despite being mild, were significantly associated with creatinine, monocyte, and eosinophil and were indirectly associated with CVD risk mainly via creatinine. Our study suggests an association between sleep-disordered breathing pathology, renal and inflammatory hematological markers, and CVD risk, and underlines the importance of monitoring apneic symptoms in the preclinical phase to help identify older adults at elevated CVD risk.