The Association between Leucocyte Telomere Length and Survival Outcomes in Patients with Cardiovascular Disease

Background: We explore the association between leucocyte telomere length (LTL) and all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD)-specific death in CVD patients.

Methods: We acquired 1599 CVD patients from a nationally representative US population survey for this study. We applied Kaplan-Meier curves, adjusted weighted Cox regression models, and restricted cubic spline to investigate the association between LTL and all-cause death. Additionally, we employed competing risk regression to assess the impact of LTL on cardiovascular-specific death, setting non-cardiovascular death as a competing event.

Results: The overall mortality rate was 31.0% after a median follow-up of 13.9 years. Patients with shorter LTL exhibited a higher risk of all-cause death, with an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 1.25 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.05-1.48). Restricted cubic spline illustrated a linear dose-response relationship. In gender-specific analyses, female patients with shorter LTL showed a higher risk of death (weighted HR, 1.79; 95% CI, 1.29-2.48), whereas this association was not observed in males (weighted HR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.61-1.32). The Fine-Gray competing risk model revealed no significant relationship between LTL and cardiovascular-specific mortality but a significant association with non-cardiovascular death (adjusted HR, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.02-1.51).

Conclusions: LTL is inversely associated with all-cause death in female CVD patients. The significant correlation between reduced LTL and increased all-cause mortality emphasizes LTL as a potential marker for tertiary prevention against cardiovascular disease.