Tuesday, December 2 | 10:20 a.m.-10:30 p.m. | T3-SSCA05-6 | Room S502
Cardiac MRI reveals the effects of obesity on heart function, German researchers have found.
Presenter Jennifer Erley, MD, of University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany, and colleagues reported that an increase in waist-to-hip ratio is associated with a higher left ventricular mass and lower ventricular volumes on MR imaging, particularly in men.
"The associations between waist-to-hip ratio and right ventricular remodeling, as well as between body mass index and left ventricular mass, are more pronounced in males than in females," Erley and colleagues noted.
The investigators evaluated the effect of obesity according to waist-to-hip ratio and body mass index on cardiac structure and function, depending on sex, via research that included 2,173 patients who underwent 3-tesla cardiovascular MRI imaging as part of a study called "Hamburg City Health."
The group noted that an increase of 0.1 in the waist-to-hip ratio was associated with a 3.9 g higher left ventricular end-diastolic mass on cardiac MRI. An increase in body mass index was linked to a 2.3 g higher left ventricular end-diastolic mass, a higher left ventricular end-diastolic volume (0.5 ml), and a 0.4 ml higher left ventricular stroke volume.
"These findings highlight the need for personalized risk assessment in obesity-related cardiovascular disease," Erley and colleagues concluded.
