Relationship between abdominal obesity and other cardiovascular risk factors: Cross sectional study of patients with symptomatic carotid disease

Abstract

Introduction Obesity, particularly visceral obesity, is considered one of major risk factors for cardiovascular events. Objectives The aim of the present study was to investigate relationship between abdominal obesity and other cardiovascular risk factors. Methods The cross-sectional study involved 657 consecutive patients with verified carotid atherosclerosis. Carotid atherosclerosis was estimated by high resolution B-mode ultrasonography. Abdominal obesity was defined as waist circumference >102 cm in men and >88 cm in women. Results Abdominal obesity was present in 324 (49.3%) participants. Multivariate analyses showed that abdominal obesity was significantly positively associated with female sex, increased Baecke's Work Index of physical activity at work, years of school completed <12, metabolic syndrome, increased triglycerides, hyperglycemia and high serum uric acid. Smoking, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, hypertension, increased total cholesterol, increased HDL and LDL cholesterols, increased high sensitive C-reactive protein, increased fibrinogen, anti-lipid therapy and anti-diabetic therapy were not significantly related to abdominal obesity. Conclusion Abdominal obesity among patients with symptomatic carotid disease is significantly related to other cardiovascular risk factors, especially metabolic syndrome, metabolic syndrome components and high level of serum uric acid.