High phosphorus levels tied to heart disease

People with high blood levels of phosphorus seem to be at increased risk for developing heart disease, researchers report.

However, Dr. Ramachandran S. Vasan told Reuters Health that "since our report is the first one to evaluate relations of serum phosphorus to cardiovascular risk in the community ... we would await confirmation of these findings by other investigators in similar community-based samples."

Vasan, with the Framingham Heart Study, Massachusetts, and colleagues point out in their report in the Archives of Internal Medicine that higher levels of phosphorus are associated with increased heart-related deaths in patients with chronic kidney disease or prior heart disease.

To evaluate whether phosphorus levels influence risk in individuals without such problems, the researchers followed 3368 participants in the Framingham Offspring study.

During an average follow-up of more than 16 years, there were 524 cardiovascular disease events. After accounting for other heart risk factors and kidney function, a higher blood level of phosphorus was associated with an increased risk.

Compared to those with the lowest levels of phosphorus, those with the highest had a 55 percent greater risk of heart disease.

However, without confirmation, continued Vasan, "the main message ... is to stay tuned for more research."

In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Robert N. Foley of the Minneapolis Medical Research Foundation, Minnesota notes that if the connection is indeed confirmed, potential treatments for lowering phosphorus levels already exist.

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, May 14, 2007.