Several studies have reported that inflammatory markers are associated with atrial fibrillation (AF). The white blood cell (WBC) count is a widely available and broadly used marker of systemic inflammation. We sought to investigate the association between an increased WBC count and incident AF and whether this association is mediated by smoking, myocardial infarction, and heart failure. We examined the participants in the Framingham Heart Study original cohort. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was used to examine the relation between the WBC count and incident AF during a 5-year follow-up period.
