Central Obesity Tied to CAD in Postmenopausal Chest Pain

For postmenopausal women with stable chest pain, central obesity, but not overall obesity, is associated with obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD), according to a study published online in Menopause.

Jun Hwan Cho, M.D., from the Seoul National University College of Medicine in South Korea, and colleagues examined the correlation between obesity type and obstructive CAD among 659 postmenopausal women older than 55 years with chest pain undergoing elective invasive coronary angiography for suspicion of CAD.

The researchers found that 47.2 percent of the women had obstructive CAD. There was no significant difference in the incidence of overall obesity for participants with and without obstructive CAD (P = 0.340); however, participants with central obesity had a higher prevalence of obstructive CAD than those without (55.5 versus 41.0 percent; P < 0.001). No significant difference in body mass index was seen for those with and without obstructive CAD (P = 0.373). Even after adjustment for potential confounders, central obesity was associated with obstructive CAD (odds ratio, 1.61; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.10 to 2.34; P = 0.013). In the same multivariable analysis, overall obesity was not associated with obstructive CAD (P = 0.228).

"This suggests the importance of the assessment of central obesity rather than overall obesity in postmenopausal women for better risk stratification and therapeutic considerations of CAD," the authors write.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Editor's Note:

For any copyright disputes involving the content, 

please email: Julia.Zhang@ubmsinoexpo.com to delete.