Abstract
Introduction
Obesity is becoming a global epidemic. Current knowledge on early signs of cardiac dysfunction in obesity patients is insufficient. The onset of heart failure in obesity patients cannot be fully explained by the presence of traditional cardiovascular risk factors.
Purpose
To detect early signs of cardiac dysfunction in obesity patients without known cardiovascular disease.
Methods
The CARDIOBESE-study is a cross-sectional multicentre study of 100 obesity patients scheduled for bariatric surgery (body mass index (BMI) ≥35 kg/m2) without known cardiovascular disease, and 50 age-matched and gender-matched non-obese controls (BMI ≤30 kg/m2). Speckle tracking echocardiography, biomarkers and Holter monitoring were used to identify parameters that are able to show cardiac dysfunction at a very early stage in obesity patients.
Results
Obesity patients had impaired left ventricular ejection fraction, global longitudinal strain (GLS) and diastolic function parameters (e.g. septal e" velocity, lateral e" velocity, E/e’ and E/A-ratio) as compared to the non-obese controls (Table). C-reactive protein (CRP) and heart rate were increased, whereas heart rate variability (Standard deviation of NN intervals, SDNN) was decreased. Obesity patients were subdivided in patients with impaired (< -17%, n = 56) or normal GLS (n = 36). Comparison between these patients revealed no differences regarding BMI, prevalence of traditional cardiovascular risk factors or CRP value. Nevertheless, patients with abnormal GLS had a higher waist circumference and lower SDNN.
Conclusion
There is a high prevalence of subclinical cardiac dysfunction as measured by GLS in obesity patients (56%), which appears to be related to abdominal fat and decreased heart rate variability and not to BMI, traditional cardiovascular risk factors or CRP.
Non-obese controls (n = 50) Obesity patients (n = 100) p-value Obesity patients with normal GLS (n = 36) Obesity patients with impaired GLS (n = 56) p-value Age (years) 49.2 ± 9.5 47.9 ± 7.6 0.36 47.6 ± 7.1 48.3 ± 7.6 0.68 BMI (kg/m2) 24.9 ± 3.2 42.9 ± 4.1 <0.001 42.7 ± 4.2 42.7 ± 4.1 0.98 Waist circumference (cm) 81.1 ± 10.4 133.1 ± 12.3 <0.001 128.2 ± 11.5 135.2 ± 10.5 0.006 E/A- ratio 1.19 ± 0.26 1.01 ± 0.3 <0.001 1.08 ± 0.2 0.96 ± 0.27 0.048 Septel e" velocity 10.3 ± 9.8 8.1 ± 1.8 0.03 8.2 ± 1.9 7.8 ± 1.7 0.24 E/e" 8.5 ± 2.1 8.9 ± 2.5 0.32 9.5 ± 2.4 8.7 ± 2.5 0.14 CRP (mg/L) 1.9 ± 2.9 8.8 ± 8.8 <0.001 8.5 ± 7.3 9.3 ± 10.1 0.67 SDNN 160.2 ± 35.4 109.4 ± 46.0 <0.001 130.4 ± 48.3 98.9 ± 41.2 0.001 Table: Selection of parameters. Values are means ± SD. SDNN= Standard deviation of NN intervals (heart rate variability)
P936 Early signs of cardiac dysfunction in obesity patients, results of the CARDIOBESE study
