Long-term residential exposure to urban air pollution, and repeated measures of systemic blood markers of XXXX and coagulation.

@entity1 @entity32 @entity2002 @entity65 @entity1787
BACKGROUND: In several studies, exposure to fine particulate matter (PM) has been associated with @entity32 , with inconsistent results. We used repeated measurements to examine the association of long-term fine and ultrafine particle exposure with several blood markers of @entity32 and coagulation. METHODS: We used baseline (2000-2003) and follow-up (2006-2008) data from the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study, a German population-based prospective cohort of 4814 @entity1 . A chemistry transport model was applied to model daily surface concentrations of PM air pollutants (PM10, PM2.5) and particle number on a grid of 1   km(2). Applying mixed regression models, we analysed associations of long-term (mean of 365   days prior to blood draw) particle exposure at each @entity1 's residence with the level of high-sensitivity C reactive protein (hs-CRP), @entity2002 , platelet and white cell count (WCC), adjusting for short-term PM exposure (moving averages of 1-7   days), personal characteristics, season, ambient temperature (1-5   days), @entity1787 and time trend. RESULTS: We analysed 6488 observations: 3275 @entity1 with baseline data and 3213 with follow-up data. An increase of 2.4     g/m(3) in long-term PM2.5 was associated with an adjusted increase of 5.4% (95% CI 0.6% to 10.5%) in hs-CRP and of 2.3% (95% CI 1.4% to 3.3%) in the platelet count. @entity2002 and WCC were not associated with long-term particle exposure. CONCLUSIONS: In this population-based cohort, we found associations of long-term exposure to PM with markers of @entity32 (hs-CRP) and coagulation (platelets). This finding supports the hypothesis that inflammatory processes might contribute to chronic effects of air pollution on @entity65 .
