TUESDAY, March 16 (HealthDay News) -- Different measures of obesity are associated with concentric left ventricular (LV) remodeling, without a change in ejection fraction, according to research published in the March issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Imaging.
Evrim B. Turkbey, M.D., of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., and colleagues analyzed data from 5,098 subjects, aged 45 to 84 years, participating in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Participants, who were free of clinically evident cardiovascular disease, underwent measurements of height, weight and girth, as well as a cardiac magnetic resonance scan.
The researchers found a positive relationship between obesity and LV mass and volume. LV mass increased by an average of 5.7 g per 10-kg increase in fat mass for women and 6.9 g for men. LV mass-to-volume ratio was associated with higher estimated fat mass, body mass index, waist-hip ratio, and waist circumference. These findings were stronger in men. However, ejection fraction was not significantly associated with obesity measures.
"With no end in sight to the obesity epidemic, rigorous investigations such as the study by Turkbey et al will be increasingly important. It is imperative that we gain further understanding of how obesity affects the heart and modulates the cardiovascular responses to lifestyle changes, surgical interventions, and pharmacotherapies," writes the author of an accompanying editorial.
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