European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2017

ESC Congress is the world’s largest cardiovascular congress with over 500 expert sessions and ~5000 abstracts. At the Congress, latest findings and original research are presented, reviewed, and discussed. In particular, the Late-Breaking Science programme presents a wide range of important trials and registries around the world in this field. At the Congress this year, findings from two landmark trials were released – the CANTOS trial and the REVEAL trial.  ESC Congress 2017 highlights 163 specific topics organised under 9 main topics. Most sessions are hosted in themed topic related ‘Villages’. My abstract was presented in Village 4 – Prevention/Rehabilitation/Sports/Nursing.

I was presenting on physical activity and metabolomics from the China Kadoorie Biobank, which was part of my DPhil work. This study is a nested case-control study of 3700 cardiovascular disease (CVD) cases and healthy controls. Metabolic biomarkers were measured by NMR spectroscopy. We showed that physical activity lowered lipoprotein particles of VLDL subclasses and increased lipoprotein particles of HDL, particularly large HDL (Figure 1). Physical activity also lowered inflammation markers, including C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, and glycoprotein acetyls (Figure 2).

Figure 1:  Associations of total physical activity (PA) with lipoprotein particle concentrations

Figure 2: Associations of total physical activity (PA) with inflammation markers

Our findings are in line with previous studies reporting inverse associations of physical activity with lipids and inflammation markers measured by conventional methods. Our work is important because we provide valuable insights into the mechanisms linking physical activity and lower risks of CVD. Our findings suggest that metabolic biomarkers may partly mediate the protective effect of physical activity on CVD, although more analyses within our study are still needed. In epidemiological studies, identifying mediators may provide stronger causal argument. If these lipids and inflammation markers are plausible mediators, then causal relationship between physical activity and CVD is more likely.

Yuanjie Pang joined the Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit in 2015. She holds a MSc in Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and an MBBs from Peking University Health Science Center. Her DPhil research involves investigating metabolic risk factors (i.e. adiposity, diabetes and physical activity) and cancer in the China Kadoorie Biobank.