The association between air pollution and heart failure, arrhythmia, embolism, thrombosis, and other cardiovascular causes of death in a time series study

In a time series study, air pollution was associated with specific cardiova scular causes of death. Deaths due to heart. failure (ICD-9 428), arrhythmi a (ICD-9 427), cerebrovascular causes (ICD-9 430-436), and thrombocytic cau ses (ICD-9 415.1, 433-4, 444, 452-3) were more strongly associated with air pollution than cardiovascular deaths (ICD-9 390-448) in general. Excess re lative risks were 2.5 to 4 times larger for these categories than for total cardiovascular disease mortality. Heart failure deaths, which made up 10% of all cardiovascular deaths, were found to be responsible for about 30% of the cardiovascular deaths related to particulate matter, SO2, CO, and NO2.