Fat near the heart raises disease risk

Wednesday April 8th, 2009

People with fat accumulated around their heart face a raised risk of disease, new research shows.

Amir Mahabadi of Harvard Medical School Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and colleagues explain that body mass index and waist circumference have traditionally been used to measure overall body fat, but "regional fat depots may be of greater importance than overall adiposity".

Several previous studies suggest that pericardial fat - fat around the coronary arteries and the heart muscle - is directly linked to heart disease risk, perhaps because it affects the coronary arteries and contributes to atherosclerosis (fatty deposits in the arteries).

The team assessed this link among 1,267 members of the Framingham Heart Study Offspring cohort. Participants, whose average age was 60 years, were scanned to view their internal fat deposits.

Results showed that pericardial fat was significantly associated with cardiovascular disease, raising the risk by about 32 per cent. This significant result remained after body mass index and waist circumference were taken into account.

In the European Heart Journal, the team conclude that pericardial fat, but not intrathoracic fat (in the chest cavity), is associated with heart disease.

"Taken together with our prior work, these findings may support the hypothesis that pericardial fat contributes to coronary atherosclerosis," they write.

But they add that the strength of the link was reduced when heart disease risk factors were considered, "suggesting that ultimately relations between fat depots and cardiovascular disease are due to shared risk factors".

Mahabadi, A. A. et al. Association of pericardial fat, intrathoracic fat, and visceral abdominal fat with cardiovascular disease burden: the Framingham Heart Study. European Heart Journal, Vol. 30, April 1, 2009, pp. 850-56.

Tags: Heart Health | North America | Fitness

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