The associations of geomagnetic storms, fast solar wind, and stream interaction regions with cardiovascular characteristic in patients with acute coronary syndrome

Abstract

It is shown the statistical associations between space weather pattern and humans' cardiovascular system. We investigated the association between space weather events and cardiovascular characteristics of 4076 randomly selected patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) who were admitted for inpatient treatment in Kaunas city, Lithuania during 2000-2005. We hypothesized that days of the space weather events, 1-3 days after, and the period between two events, named as intersection days (1-3 days after the event, which coincided with 1-3 days before the event), might be associated with patients' cardiovascular characteristics. The multivariate logistic regression was applied, and the patients' risk was evaluated by odds ratio (OR), adjusting for age, sex, smoking status, the day of the week, and seasonality. During the intersection days of geomagnetic storms (GS), the risk of ACS increases in obese patients (OR=1.72, p = 0.008). The risk of ventricular fibrillation during admission was associated with stream interaction region (SIR) with a lag of 0-3 days (OR=1.44, p = 0.049) The risk of ACS in patients with chronic atrial fibrillation was associated with fast solar wind (FSW) (≥600 km/s) (lag 0-3 days, OR=1.39, p = 0.030) and with days of solar proton event (lag 0-3) going in conjunction with SIR (lag 0-3) (OR=2.06, p = 0.021). During days which were not assigned as GS with a lag of (-3 to 3) days, FSW (lag 0-3) was associated with the risk of ACS in patients with renal disease (OR=1.71, p = 0.008) and days of SIR - with the risk in patients with pulmonary disease (OR=1.53, p = 0.021). A SIR event, days between two space weather events, and FSW without GS may be associated with a risk to human health.