Frontiers in Psychiatry (Sep 2023)

Causal association between self-reported fatigue and coronary artery disease: a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis

  • Xiaoyi Qi,
  • Xiaoyi Qi,
  • Shijia Wang,
  • Liangxian Qiu,
  • Xiongbiao Chen,
  • Qianwen Huang,
  • Kunfu Ouyang,
  • Yanjun Chen

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1166689
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14

Abstract

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BackgroundObservational studies have reported the association between fatigue and coronary artery disease (CAD), but the causal association between fatigue and CAD is unclear.MethodWe conducted a bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) study using publicly available genome-wide association studies (GWAS) data. The inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method was used as the primary analysis. We performed three complementary methods, including weighted median, MR-Egger regression, and MR pleiotropy residual sum and outlier (MR-PRESSO) to evaluate the sensitivity and horizontal pleiotropy of the results.ResultSelf-reported fatigue had a causal effect on coronary artery atherosclerosis (CAA) (OR 1.047, 95%CI 1.033–1.062), myocardial infarction (MI) (OR 1.027 95%CI 1.014–1.039) and coronary heart disease (CHD) (OR 1.037, 95%CI 1.021–1.053). We did not find a significant reverse causality between self-reported fatigue and CAD. Given the heterogeneity revealed by MR-Egger regression, we employed the IVW random effect model. For the examination of fatigue on CHD and the reverse analysis of CAA, and MI on fatigue, the MR-PRESSO test found horizontal pleiotropy. No significant outliers were found.ConclusionThe MR analysis reveals a causal relationship between self-reported fatigue and CAD. The results should be interpreted with caution due to horizontal pleiotropy.

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