Nocturnal Respiratory Rate: a Stable, Heritable Trait that Predicts All-Cause Mortality
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Biomarkers and Personalized Medicine in Cardiovascular Disease Symposium

UC San Diego

Nocturnal Respiratory Rate: a Stable, Heritable Trait that Predicts All-Cause Mortality

et al.
Abstract

Nocturnal Respiratory Rate: a Stable, Heritable Trait that Predicts All-Cause Mortality

Raimon Padrós-Valls, MS1,2, Mijia Ma, MS3, Keshav Gupta, MBBS, MS1, Nicholas Harrington, PhD1, Jeremy E. Orr, MD4, Robert L. Owens, MD4, Rany Salem, PhD5, Kevin R. King, MD, PhD1,6

1.Department of Bioengineering, Jacobs School of Engineering, UC San Diego; 2.Bioinformatics and Systems Biology Graduate Program, UC San Diego; 3.Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; 4.Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, UC San Diego; 5.Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Longevity Science, UC San Diego; 6.Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, UC San Diego.

 

Abstract:

Respiratory rate is a fundamental vital sign controlled by brainstem circuits, yet its determinants and prognostic potential remain poorly defined. Because activity and conscious modulation confound waking measurements, we hypothesized that nocturnal respiratory rate (NRR) could serve as a stable, passively measurable trait suitable for longitudinal monitoring and population-scale study. Using non-contact home bed sensors, we found that NRR was highly consistent within and between nights for a given individual but varied substantially across individuals, consistent with a subject-specific set point. In a survival analysis of 5,679 older adults from the Sleep Heart Health Study, individuals in the high NRR group exhibited nearly 5-fold higher all-cause mortality, with an adjusted hazard ratio of 2.15 (95% CI 1.30–3.55) after controlling for major clinical covariates. To investigate genetic determinants, we combined polysomnography from the National Sleep Research Resource with dbGaP genotyping data from four cohorts to perform the first genome-wide association study of respiratory rate (N=14,277). We identified significant loci implicating ion-channel (DPP10), neuronal (PIRT), structural (TNR, DACH1), and immune/cardiac (NFATC1) genes, with SNP-based heritability of 0.247 (SE 0.035). Together, these results establish NRR as a stable, heritable, and prognostic biomarker with inherited and acquired determinants.


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