Association of individual-level concentrations and human respiratory tract deposited doses of fine particulate matter with alternation in blood pressure

- Outdoor, indoor and personal PM2.5 were associated with blood pressure.
- Outdoor, indoor and personal PM2.5 were associated with inflammatory indicators.
- Change in blood pressure may be overestimated using ambient fixed-site PM2.5 levels.
- Lung deposited PM2.5 doses had a prominent effect on blood pressure.

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) contributes to the risk of cardiovascular events, partially owing to its deposition in the human respiratory tract. To investigate short-term effects of ambient PM2.5 exposure on alternation of blood pressure (BP), this study was conducted during the winter-summer period between 2014 and 2015. The study included 106 community residents in Wuhan city, China. We repeatedly monitored the household and outdoor PM2.5 concentrations as well as individual-level PM2.5 in each season, and then assessed personal PM2.5 exposure (including deposited doses of PM2.5 in the human respiratory tract) by using different methodology (such as using a dosimetry model). All participants took part in the physical examination, including the inflammatory indicators, BP and lung function parameters measurements. Subsequently, we assessed the health damage of exposure to PM2.5 using generalized additive models. We observed increased BP at 2-day lag for an interquartile range increase in ambient fixed-site, households, individual-level PM2.5 exposure and the corresponding lung deposited doses of each exposure concentration (p < 0.05), decreased BP at 3-day lag for an interquartile range increase in ambient fixed-site, households PM2.5 and the corresponding lung deposited doses of each exposure concentration (p < 0.05). The estimated deposited doses of PM2.5 by the deposition fractions in this study and the referenced deposition fractions by previous reported method were equivalent associated with alternation in BP. In conclusion, lung deposited dose of PM2.5 as a quantitative indicator may be used to assess adverse cardiovascular effects following the systemic inflammation. However, we require careful assessment of acute adverse cardiovascular effects using ambient fixed-site PM2.5 after short-term PM2.5 exposure.

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