title: Association of Plasma Transforming Growth Factor-β1 Levels and the Risk of Atrial Fibrillation: A Meta-Analysis.
abstract: Numerous studies have demonstrated that plasma transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) may be involved in the pathogenesis of atrial fibrillation (AF), but some discrepancy remained. We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the association between the plasma level of TGF-β1 and the risk of AF.
  
  
  
  Published clinical studies evaluating the association between the plasma level of TGF-β1 and the risk of AF were retrieved from PubMed and EMBASE databases. Two reviewers independently evaluated the quality of the included studies and extracted study data. Subgroup analysis and sensitivity analysis were performed to evaluate for heterogeneity between studies.
  
  
  
  Of the 395 studies identified initially, 13 studies were included into our analysis, with a total of 3354 patients. Higher plasma level of TGF-β1 was associated with increased risk of AF when evaluated as both a continuous variable (SMD 0.67; 95%CI 0.29-1.05) and a categorical variable (OR 1.01, 95% CI 1.01-1.02).
  
  
  
  This meta-analysis suggests an association between elevated plasma TGF-β1 and new onset AF. Additional studies with larger sample sizes are needed to further investigate the relationship between plasma TGF-β1 and the occurrence of AF.
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Key Laboratory of Ionic-Molecular Function of Cardiovascular disease, Department of Cardiology, Tianjin Institute of Cardiology, Second Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300211, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jiao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Key Laboratory of Ionic-Molecular Function of Cardiovascular disease, Department of Cardiology, Tianjin Institute of Cardiology, Second Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300211, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yajuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Cardiac Arrhythmia Service, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit St., Boston, Massachusetts, 02114, United States of America.
authors.forename: Chee Yuan
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Key Laboratory of Ionic-Molecular Function of Cardiovascular disease, Department of Cardiology, Tianjin Institute of Cardiology, Second Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300211, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhiwei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Key Laboratory of Ionic-Molecular Function of Cardiovascular disease, Department of Cardiology, Tianjin Institute of Cardiology, Second Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300211, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Tong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Key Laboratory of Ionic-Molecular Function of Cardiovascular disease, Department of Cardiology, Tianjin Institute of Cardiology, Second Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300211, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Guangping
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000097:blood* / Q000453:epidemiology; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D053773:Transforming Growth Factor beta1 / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D053773:Transforming Growth Factor beta1