γl-Glutamyltransferase and risk of sudden cardiac death in middle-aged finnish men: A new prospective cohort study

Background--γ-glutamyltransferase (ggt) has been linked to an increased risk of several cardiovascular outcomes; however,the relationship of ggt with sudden cardiac death (scd) has not been investigated previously. we aimed to assess the association of ggt with risk of scd. methods and results--serum ggt activity was assessed at baseline in the kuopio ischemic heart disease prospective cohort of 1780 men,and 136 scds were recorded during 22 years of follow-up. correction for within-person variability was made using data from repeated measurements taken several years apart. the regression dilution ratio of loge ggt adjusted for age was 0.68 (95% ci 0.61-0.74). serum ggt was log-linearly associated with risk of scd. the hazard ratio for scd per 1 sd higher baseline loge ggt values (2-fold higher) was 1.30 (95% ci 1.10-1.54; p=0.002) after adjustment for several established risk factors and remained consistent with further adjustment for alcohol consumption,resting heart rate,lipids,and c-reactive protein (hazard ratio 1.26,95% ci 1.05-1.50; p=0.014). the corresponding hazard ratios were 1.48 (95% ci 1.15-1.89; p=0.002) and 1.40 (95% ci 1.07- 1.82; p=0.014) after correction for within-person variability. hazard ratios remained unchanged after accounting for incident coronary events and did not vary importantly by levels or categories of prespecified conventional risk factors.conclusions--ggt is positively,log-linearly,and independently associated with future risk of scd in the general male population.further research is needed to replicate these findings. © 2016 the authors.