Proteomics Profiling and Risk of New‐Onset Atrial Fibrillation: Framingham Heart Study

Background Prior studies relating proteomics markers to incident AF screened for limited numbers of proteins. Methods and Results We performed proteomics assays among participants from the Framingham Heart Study Offspring attending their fifth examination. Plasma protein levels (n=1373) were measured by the SOMAscan proteomic profiling platform. We used robust inference for the Cox proportional hazards model to relate each protein level with incident AF. In addition, we examined the association between AF‐related genetic loci and levels of proteins associated with AF. Our study included 1885 participants (mean age 55±10 years, 54% women) who had proteomic profiles measured. A total of 349 participants developed AF during follow‐up (mean follow‐up 18.3 years). We observed that 8 proteins were significantly associated with incident AF after adjusting for age, sex, technical covariates, and correction for multiple testing (P<0.05/1373=3.6×10−5). After additional adjustments for clinical factors associated wi...