Prevention & lipidsResearch article
Associations of Short-Term Ozone Exposure With Hypoxia and Arterial Stiffness
- Panel study
- repeated measures (4 visits)
- 2 cities at different altitudes
- Linear mixed-effects models adjusted for confounders
Authors' conclusion
O3 exposure may reduce oxygen availability, prompting compensatory increases in red blood cells and hemoglobin, which exacerbate arterial stiffening.
Study context
- Population
- Young healthy residents of 2 cities at different altitudes on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China (high O3, low particulate pollution)
- Participants
- 210 residents · 4 repeated visits
- Comparison
- Short-term O3 exposure
- Outcome
- Hypoxic biomarkers and arterial stiffness
- Follow-up
- Lag1 to lag1-7 days
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Per 10-ppb increase in O3 (lag 1–7 days), maximum changes
- SpO2 decrease
- −0.42%
- RBC increase
- 0.92%
- Hemoglobin concentration increase
- 0.97%
- Hematocrit increase
- 1.92%
- Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) increase (arterial stiffness)
- 1.04% to 1.33%
Further findings
Mediation of O3–cfPWV association
- RBC, hemoglobin and hematocrit increases significantly mediated the association; SpO2 reduction had an insignificant mediating effect
Effect modification by altitude
- Higher altitude: delayed associations with SpO2 and HIF-1 expression, stronger associations with RBC indices
2-pollutant models (PM2.5 or NO2)
- Associations remained robust after adjusting for copollutants
Original publication
Associations of Short-Term Ozone Exposure With Hypoxia and Arterial Stiffness. J Am Coll Cardiol. Published 22 January 2025. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2024.11.044
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it