Urinary tartaric acid as a biomarker of wine consumption and cardiovascular risk: the PREDIMED trial

Abstract

Background and Aims Moderate wine consumption has been associated with lower cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in older populations. However, wine consumption information through self-reports is prone to measurement errors inherent to subjective as- sessments. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between urinary tartaric acid, an objective biomarker of wine consumption, and the rate of a composite clinical CVD event. Methods A case-cohort nested study was designed within the PREDIMED trial with 1232 participants: 685 incident cases of CVD and arandom subcohort of 625 participants (including 78 overlapping cases). Wine consumption was registered using validated food frequency questionnaires. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was used to measure urinary tartaric acid at base-line and after one year of intervention. Weighted Cox regression models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) of CVD. Results Tartaric acid was correlated with self-reported wine consumption at baseline [r = 0.46 (95% CI 0.41; 0.50)]. Five categories of post hoc urinary tartaric acid excretion were used for better representation of risk patterns. Concentrations of 3–12 and 12–35 μg/mL, which reflect ∼3–12 and 12–35 glasses/month of wine, were associated with lower CVD risk [HR 0.62 (95% CI 0.38; 1.00), P = .050 and HR 0.50 (95% CI 0.27; 0.95), P = .035, respectively]. Less significant associations between self- reported wine consumption and CVD risk were observed.